Marauders: Year 1
by Hogwarts914
Summary: It's Lily Evans first year at Hogwarts, and already she is making new friends, and enemies. Read as she faces drama, bullies, and her friends just being plain weird. Rated T because I am weird. Bit of James/Lily if you put it under a microscope.
1. Trains and Twins

**Hey guys! So, I know it's been so long since I have updated any of my stories. They will be updated as soon as my elbow gets better! I want to send a shout out to nerdyherdwriting for helping me with this idea. Visit their page!**

** ~nerdyherdwriting**

**And now… the disclaimer.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Or any recognizable characters for that matter. Last time I checked, my name wasn't JK Rowling.**

**Note from other authors:**

**Also, some of the dialogue is different because we didn't want to plagiarize. We are GOOD HONEST PEOPLE!**

**AND HERE'S CHAPTER UNO!**

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Chapter 1- Lily:

The whistle of the train let out a high-pitched shriek as hundreds of feet thundered against the platform. Lily Evans glanced nervously at the crowd. She felt so out of place with everyone in various cloaks and robes and with everyone seeming to know what to do except her. She took a nervous sigh and turned back to her parents, who were smiling at her even though Lily knew they'd miss her, and her sister Petunia, who (once again) was doing the best of her ability to ignore her.

"Well," her mother said, pride mixing with the sadness in her eyes. "You'd best not be late. Train leaves any minute."

"Write everyday, 'kay Lils?", her father kissed her on her forehead.

"'Kay!" Lily waved goodbye to her parents. "Bye dad! Bye mum!", she paused and looked at her sister, who had her eyes closed and her hook-shaped, pointy nose stuck up in the air. "Bye, Tuney," she said quietly, turning towards the train. Her dad had already helped her load her trunk on.

She walked down the narrow halls of the train until she reached an compartment with an empty seat, which she promptly sat down in. With a great shudder, the train started forward. Suddenly, Lily stood up and stuck her head out of the window, desperate to see her family one more time. There they were, her father and mother, laughing and crying at the same time and waving good-bye vigorously. Petunia stood to the side, her eyes narrowed. Making the decision in a split-second, Lily waved good-bye to her, and as the train went around the bend, she could have sworn that her sister waved back.

Lily slumped in the seat and pressed her face against the now closed windowpane, her throat aching. Unwillingly, the tears came. Then, she heard the compartment door slide open. A skinny, sallow-faced boy sat in the seat opposite her. Lily didn't meet his eyes.

"Hey," he said softly. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, Sev. I'm fine." she replied, not daring to meet his gaze for the chance her may see her tear-stained face. "I just...just need to be alone for a little." The boy, dubbed 'Sev' sighed.

"Alright, if you need anything, just come find me in a different compartment." He seemed reluctant to go, but slowly made his way out the compartment. Once the door had lightly shut behind him, Lily's tears ran more frequently down her face. She was trying to stifle the sobs that were growing in her throat, but a few escaped.

An hour passed, and Lily found herself staring out the window at the passing trees, valleys, and plains. Her crying had stopped a while ago, but there was still an empty feeling in her chest. She heard the sound of a compartment opening behind her and turned to see two girls standing there.

The taller one had wavy, short brunette hair with light auburn highlights that fell right below her shoulders. Her blue-gray eyes glinted with mischief and you could tell she got into trouble a lot. Her light skinned face was populated with a vast number of freckles, and she had slightly rounded glasses perched at the top of her nose. Her mouth was curled into a small smirk, and she sat into her hip, with her hands crossed on her chest. She was fairly skinny, and Lily could tell she was an athlete. She was in what Lily recognized as the school's robes and uniform.

The other girl had dark brown hair that fell halfway to her elbows. Lily could see several purple streaks among the brown. Long bangs fell over green eyes, the same color as Lily's. She too was wearing her school robes and had round glasses, a small smile on her face. She stood straight and tall, her hand folded firmly behind her back. She gave of a reading of craziness and possible insanity.

"Hi," said the second girl. Before Lily could reply, the first girl spoke." Can we sit here? Thanks!" As one, the two girls sat down. Lily stared at them. She couldn't decide if they were from non-magical families, or have been witches their whole entire lives.

The auburn-haired girl, catching her gaze, said brightly,"Oh sorry, we didn't introduce ourselves. I'm Thorn-"

"And I'm Regall." The purple highlights one said, completing the sentence. She gave off a boastful atmosphere, and interrupted the other girl like it was nothing. It gave Lily a feeling about witches, like they were rude, but she shrugged it off.

"I-I'm Lily.", she stammered, not knowing what else to say.

"Oh, nice to meet you, Lily!" Regall enthused. "So, are you Muggle-born, or have you always known you were going to go to Hogwarts?"

"Don't ask her that!" Thorn intervened. "That's a personal question."

"Well, then, I'm sorry," said Regall sarcastically. "Anyway, if she doesn't want to answer it, she can just say so, or she can just say if she is Muggle-born or a pureblood, or half-blood, or whatever."

Lily did not understand anything Regall just said. The way she talked fast, and how she used terms that were probably common for a witch to say. Apparently it was considered 'personal'.

"My mom and dad are non-magical, if thats what you mean. And my sister Petunia is not magical either."

"Oh," said Regall lightly, "That's cool. Was it a surprise when you got your letter? My brothers were jumping all over me when I got mine. They're younger, you see, and can't wait to go to Hogwarts since our parents have told us stories all about it." Lily laughed.

"I have a twin sister," interrupted Thorn. "We got our letters at the same time."

"Wow," said Lily. "What's it like to have a twin sister? Do you guys ever switch personalities or anything?"

"It's annoying when they're a lot smarter then you," she moaned.

"Nonsense, Thorn, you're very smart," Regall comforted Thorn. Thorn laughed good-humoredly.

"Her name is Jade. She looks like me, but she has black hair, and blue streaks. Mom made sure we had different hair colors so she could tell us apart, otherwise we'd switch all the time!" Everyone laughed. Suddenly, a rattle outside in the corridor sounded, and a cheerful plump witch poked her head into the compartment.

"Would anyone like a treat off the cart?" she asked sweetly. Regall jumped up.

"Ooh, candy!" she exclaimed, and ran to the cart. Thorn and Lily followed.

"Do you have wizard money?" Thorn asked gently. Lily nodded exasperatedly.

"I may be 'Muggle-born', if that's what you call it, but I've been to Diagon Alley before!"

They bought several sweet treats Lily had never even heard of. Chocolate Frogs, Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans, Floating Lollipops, Pumpkin Pasties, and more astonished Lily. Only magic could do this! Wait, thats right. It is magic! They were going back into their apartment when Lily was shoved from behind.

"Ow! Sorry, Regall!" Lily untangled herself from her new friends and spun around to face the person who pushed her.

He was tall and sneering, with blond hair and pale skin that seemed to accentuate his pointed features. A shiny badge with a P was fastened to his robes, along with a green and silver badge with an embellished S on it. He looked down at Lily like she was a bug he couldn't wait to squash. Lily swallowed.

"Watch where you're going!" she said boldly. The boy seemed surprised at first, then laughed.

"I guess I'm going to have to keep an eye on the first-years this year," he smirked. "And for the record, you better watch it because I am a prefect and therefore can make your life miserable." Still smirking, he strode down the hallway, shoving several more people as he went.

Lily stared at Thorn and Regall as they filed into their compartment. "What's a prefect, and why are they so evil?"

"Prefects are sort of like student leaders. They are usually goody-two shoes who never do anything wrong. They can give you detentions and take away points. There are usually four to six prefects from each house. But I don't think all prefects are like that," replied Thorn, giving the disappearing prefect the evil eye. "That's probably a Slytherin prefect, did you see the badge on his chest? They're the evil ones. You want to be a Gryffindor."

Lily knew Sev had mentioned something about houses, but he only brushed up on it. "What are the different houses?" she questioned.

"There are four different houses at Hogwarts. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin." Thorn spat out the last name like it was acid on her tongue. "Each house has it's own redeeming qualities. Gryffindor is brave, Ravenclaw is smart, Hufflepuff is hard-working, and Slytherin is cunning.

"I bet you Jade will be a Ravenclaw. I have no idea where I'd be, though." Thorn continued. "I know I want to be in Gryffindor, but I don't know if I've 'got what it takes'." Thorn made a 'tough guy' face.

"I don't know where I want to be," pondered Regall. "Gryffindor or Ravenclaw would be cool. I don't think I'd be good in Hufflepuff. Thorn here is evil enough to be a Slytherin, though."

"Am not!" Thorn turned to her friend, sending her a piercing glare. Regall smiled.

"Just saying the truth!" she said defensively.

"So, I take it you guys know each other?" Lily said, slightly amused at their bickering.

"Of course we know each other! We've been neighbors our whole lives!" Regall shouted

"Well, actually more like 8/11ths of our life, but close enough." Thorn chuckled.

"Yeah, we met at my 3rd birthday. Our parents are friends. While they were talking, Thorn started throwing foam bricks at my head. Like the kind that Muggle kids build with. We immediately bonded. I mean, what people don't want friends who throw bricks at your head?." explained Regall. "I was introduced to Jade, too, but for some reason…"

"For some reason what?" Lily wanted Regall to continue.

"Well, she basically sat in the corner with a book and read the whole time. She does nothing else. Except play Quidditch. And breathe. Occasionally eat."

"And don't forget yell at me!" Thorn interjected.

"Why would she yell at you?" Lily narrowed her eyes.

"Well, for example, I was doing a backhandspring in the living room and she just happened to walk behind me at that moment. I accidently kicked her in the head." she snorted, "Her head sounded hollow."

"They're sisters, what do you think?" Regall said.

"Yeah, she may be annoying, but she's my sister. I'd hate it if something happened to her. We do get along, occasionally. That and who else would I annoy?" Lily smiled while Regall gasped.

"Oh, my Merlin! I never thought I'd hear you say that." she exclaimed dramatically.

****"Yeah. But if you tell her, I will murder you in your sleep." Thorn finished as they all burst out laughing. Lily smiled. It felt good to have some new friends.

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**WOOT! Done with the first chappy! please tell me what you think! Like it? Hate it? Please no really mean flames though. The next chapter will probably be up in a few days maybe. Maybe even an hour.**

**Yes, I will try to get to my other stories as quick as I can. **

**Thank you, faithful readers! My elbow is getting better, but I have to hold it in a weird position to type. See you soon!**

**- Hogwarts914**


	2. Books and Buddies

**Short wait huh? Yep! The next chapter is up, as you can see, and I would like to extend thanks to my 3 friends who helped me write this, I can't post their names for privacy reasons. But, they wrote like, 3 chapters while I was a an event. They are awesome!**

**You know the drill:**

**Disclaimer: There are cobwebs in my wallet. I am certainly not rich enough to own Harry Potter.**

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Chapter 2-Skye

Skye followed her sister down the train's long corridor, drinking it all in.

"Can I sit with you and your friends?" she begged. She didn't want to sit in a compartment alone, or worse, with complete strangers. That would be awkward.

Wynter turned around and faced her. "No! I told you that you have to make some new friends. You can't spend your whole school life tagging along with me and my friends! We might not even be in the same house."

"But-" Skye stammered. Wynter knelt down and put her hands on Skye's shoulders.

"Look, Skye, I know it's been hard. Mom is gone, Dad is still sad these days, and now you have to be in a whole new environment. But, I know you can do this. Now go find a compartment." Wynter stood up and folded her arms. "I'm not moving until I see you go in."

Reluctantly, Skye headed down the corridor, looking for a good compartment. Finally, she spotted an empty one. Dashing inside, she took a seat, sitting down and looking out the window, glad to be away from the crowded corridor. Then, with a jolt, Skye realized that this compartment wasn't empty after all. In the corner opposite her sat a girl with short black hair with blue highlights immersed in a book. She had not changed into wizard clothes yet, and wore a blue and green plaid shirt, skinny jeans, and red converse shoes. Skye took a deep breath. You have to make some new friends, came Wynter's voice. Skye wasn't a very social person, but she was determined to follow Wynter's instructions.

She cleared her throat. "Hi, I'm Skye-"

The other girl removed her book from her eyeballs and revealed her pale, gaunt face. Her light green eyes stung Skye, and she had this atmosphere that scared Skye a bit. "Too formal of an introduction. Way too mainstream. I'm Jade Waters. Not pleased to meet you; I prefer fictional characters over real people." Skye sat there for a moment, stunned. Then, the anger that had been boiling inside of her for a year spilled over the top.

"Well you know what Jade Waters? I'm not pleased to meet you either. And I couldn't care less what you thought of me if my sister hadn't told me to!"

"Feisty, eh? Nice way to make a comeback for winning my trust. I think we'll be great friends." A smile came across Jade Waters's face, and it almost looked happy, before she stuck her nose back in her book. "Please, please, PLEASE tell me you like reading." Skye shrugged.

"I don't spend my whole time doing it, but it's okay I guess. I prefer to do things rather than read about them, but reading is nice when you're-" Skye stopped. That was almost two whole sentences that she had spoken to someone who wasn't family. Silently she congratulated herself.

"People say I don't have a life when I read. That is true. I have too many." Jade sounded like a scholar, and she seemed to make a lot of references. Skye knew she was stuck with her.

"Erm, thats nice. Anyway, I'm Skye Delane… I have an older sister here. Do you have any siblings?" Skye shivered. She was having another anxiety attack.

Jade lifted her head from her book again. "Yes, I have a twin sister. Her name is Thorn. She's a bit on the odd side." Hypocrite, Skye thought.

"Is she here?" Skye asked hopefully.

"Yes. We're a pureblood family. Unlike her, I don't associate with the lower class of Muggles. They are useless, weak, and I have no idea why Thorn and her best friend Regall are obsessed with them."

"My father is a Muggle-born," said Skye softly, with a threatening air. "And he's the best wizard I know."

"I'm sorry if I offended you. Some aren't that bad. Like the ones that are magical." Jade apologized without showing emotion. She picked up her book, and continued to read Quidditch: The Sport of the Millenium.

"You play Quidditch?" asked Skye. Maybe this girl actually did participate in some other activity than reading.

"Yes. Thorn and I were raised on Quidditch."

"What position?"

"Seeker." Skye could see why. Jade Waters was slim, yet tall. Her long limbs could help her lean for the Snitch.

"Cool. I like playing Seeker, too, but I'm better at Chaser. I hate how people find Seeker to be the best. You need to have great speed and aim for Chaser. "

"Ah, Chaser. Yeah, that's true. As Thorn being the 'older' twin, she always insisted on being Seeker, and me being a Keeper/Chaser/Beater for her. The first time she saw me up in that Seeker position, she fell off her broom. Pfft. As if reading every single Quidditch book in Diagon Alley wouldn't have an effect!" Jade chuckled. She lifted her head away from her book again, and looked like a normal person. Almost.

"You're freaky," said Skye conversationally. "I like it."

"I take that as a compliment. Thank you. You seem not to bad for a non-hipster as well." Jade seemed so, so anti-mainstream. She was obsessed with indie and hipster culture, yet still seemed to be a good person to talk about pop culture. How that is possible, Skye thought, she will never find the answer to.

When the "candy cart", as Wynter had dubbed it years ago, came, Skye's stomach was growling. She realized she didn't have the biggest breakfast that morning, and quickly dug through her pocket to find a few Sickles in there. She pulled them all out and bought a few Chocolate Cauldrons, Licorice Wands, and Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans. While Skye was paying, she noticed a little skirmish at the end of their corridor. Three girls were facing a much older 5th year boy and seemed to be arguing. The girl in front had reddish hair and green eyes was arguing outright. One with auburn hair and another with brown hair seemed to be backing her up. The boy turned away and started towards Skye, pushing people as he went.

Skye ducked back into the compartment, hoping to stay out of his way.

"Who are those girls fighting with that boy?" Skye asked Jade, hoping somewhere in her odd head she would have this information.

"They auburn head is my sister, Thorn. The one standing close next to Thorn is her best friend, my enemy, Regall. And the ginger? No idea. Thorn must've found some Muggle to talk to. Pfft, just like her to talk to one of some impure blood.." Jade hissed at the name of Regall and Muggle. Skye glanced at her.

"Why do you hate Muggles so much?"

Jade looked depressed as she told Skye. "My best friend- she… she was… killed by one of them. They just took their odd little metal-wands and beat her for accidently using magic. She was young, she didn't know!" Jade was now standing up, with her fist clenched.

"Oh," said Skye. "I'm sorry, and yes, I do mean it."

"Thank you. Now, lets go see what silly stuff Thorn is up to again."

"Okay. Not like we have anything else to do." Skye stuffed a Chocolate Cauldron in her mouth and followed Jade down the corridor to the compartment where they had seen the argument.

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**The next chapter will be up in a few... minutes, I think. Wow.**

**I will see you in a few!**

**- Hogwarts914**


	3. Spells and Sisters

**Hi, I haven't seen you in so long! It's been what, five minutes?**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter! I do own a pillow though. I like to hug it, it's squishy. And it is orange striped and shaped like a star. I have no idea why I'm telling you about a pillow.**

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Chapter 3- Jade

Jade and Skye peered inside the glass compartment doors. Inside were the three girls, talking earnestly. Jade pushed open the door and all three looked up.

"Skye, I'm going in. I've read up ahead a bit, and I've learned a few simple spells. Quick, grab my wand!"

"It's in your pocket, idiot!"

Jade looked down. "Oh. Well, follow, dummy!" Jade swaggered into the compartment confidently and surveyed the other two people down her nose. "Well, well, Regall. We meet again." Thorn's best friend looked up at her (Jade absolutely loves people having to look up at her. It proves that she's the boss. And taller) with a scowl. Jade swung around to look at the other person. Regall looked absolutely confused.

"Now, Regall, before I kick your butt, we need to deal with el stupido here. What nonsense has a boy been giving you?" Jade asked Regall and Thorn. "And who the heck is the ginger?"

"Her name is Lily, not ginger! Shut up Jade!" Thorn yelled at her twin.

"Yeah, yeah, same thing," replied Jade boredly. Thorn stepped closer and put her face right next to Jade's.

"Don't - insult - Lily!" she hissed through clenched teeth.

Jade asserted her tallness. "Don't- come up to me- like this! Also your breath smells terrible! Are you sure you brushed this morning?" Thorn snarled and Jade felt something hit her in the stomach and she staggered back. Jade whipped out her wand, and muttered "Flipendo!" Thorn suddenly did an odd seizure-somersault and landed on her back, winded. Jade now turned to Regall who had a fire burning in her eyes. Jade was good at dueling, well at least what she knew so far, but Regall was easily the best of them all.

"Expelliarmus!" A jet of pale blue light shot from her wand straight at Regall, who quickly deflected it.

"You should have the brains to know a simple little word- Protego! I can save myself from every little spell you have managed to cram into your mind before Sorting. Now, let's break this up, get in our robes, and call it a ni-" Suddenly Thorn shot a spell from the floor that seemed to soar in slow motion right over Jade's shoulder and into Skye's ribs. Skye jerked backward and slammed right through the glass door and into the opposite wall just as the Slytherin prefect was passing with a certain sallow, stringy somebody. The prefect and his companion were pushed to the floor. The companion shouted and stood up.

"Watch where you're going!" he yelled. Lily leapt to her feet.

"Sev!" she cried, but Snape didn't see her.

"Tarantallegra!" the prefect cried, pointing his wand at a groaning Skye, who started to dance madly. Thorn and Regall looked as though they didn't know if they should laugh. Jade saw Skye's eyes narrow furiously and her wand come up. She never heard the spell, but in an instant Snape and the prefect were covered with what looked like flying boogers. Hands over their faces, they fled. The Tarantallegra spell stopped and Skye fell to her knees. Jade rushed up to her, and helped her to her feet.

"Skye, I'm so sorry for this. I know little spells, but I better try this one to fix that awful bloody nose you've got there." Jade put her wand to Skye's face. "Episkey!" Then, she turned to Thorn and company.

"I hope you're happ-"

"Who is she?" demanded Thorn, pointing at Skye.

"That is my friend," replied Jade icily.

"Did she just hex the perfect?" Ginger-Lily asked. "Good for her!"

"Yeah, well, I've always had good taste in friends," boasted Jade, "Though I can't say the same for you. So long!" Beckoning Skye, Jade went back to their compartment. Skye slumped into a seat nearest the window.

"What'll Wynter say? My first day and already I've gotten into a fight," she groaned. Jade sat next to her.

"You don't have to mention the fight part," Jade assured her. "Just say that you met some new people." Skye brightened up a bit.

"Yeah! Thanks."

"No prob. We'd better change into our robes, it's getting dark." The two girls were changing when two people poked their heads in. The blonde head asked,

"How's it going?"

"Wynter!" Skye ran to her sister. "I met some new people today!" Wynter smiled.

"See? I told you it wasn't that hard. Who is this?"

"This is my friend Jade. She - um - really likes books." Skye pushed Jade forward. Jade looked at Wynter over the tops of her thick glasses.

"Not plea- I mean, pleased to meet you," Jade corrected herself after Skye pinched her. Wynter shot her sister a quizzical glance. Skye mouthed, I'll tell you later.

"Pleased to meet you, too, Jade," said Wynter politely. Then to Skye, "I have to go, but I brought Sirius for you. Thought you'd want to go up to the castle with someone you know."

"She can go up with me-" But all the words were sucked out of Jade's mouth when she saw the remaining person in the doorway. His dark hair fell casually over his gray eyes, and his handsome features were also somewhat arrogant.

"Hey Skye," he grinned. "Wanna go up to the castle with me and my friends? They're rea-"

"Hi," interrupted Jade breathlessly, pushing in front of Skye and shaking Sirius' hand.

" Veryveryveryveryvery pleased to meet you!"

"Uh, hi?" said Sirius, raising his eyebrows at Skye, who was shaking with silent laughter. Can we go now? he mouthed. Skye nodded and tried to keep a straight face.

"Jade, let's go now," she said gently, easing Jade's hand off of Sirius'. "You're cutting off his circulation." Sirius immediately put both hands in his pockets and stepped behind Skye. "Come on, Jade," sang Skye, steering her friend out the door. "You can see him any time you want, but we have to go now or we'll miss the boats." The three hurried through the busy hallways and stepped off the train and onto the Hogsmeade platform. The platform was a seething mass of black robes. A lantern was swinging at the far end.

"First years!" called a rough gravelly voice. "First years over here!" They made their way towards it until they joined the group around a broad, bald man with a much taller person beside him. The bald man handed the lantern to the taller one and spoke to him.

"Keep calling, Hagrid. If any of them come up late, send them after. I'll take this lot to the boats." The taller one obediently took the lantern and began to shout out,

"Firs' years, firs' years!" The broad man trotted down a steep path.

"We're supposed to follow him down that?" Sirius hissed. "We'll break our necks!" Jade sidled up to him.

"You're absolutely right! Well, maybe we should make these last minutes coun-AAAHHH!" Jade slid down the path and landed on her stomach, coughing up dirt. Skye rushed to her and after checking that she was okay, looked at Sirius reproachfully.

"Don't push my friends!" Sirius put his hands up innocently.

"I didn't do anything! She slipped on her own! Didn't I say it was steep?" Skye shook her head exasperatedly and helped Jade to her feet.

"Sorry," apologized Skye anxiously. "I'm sure Sirius didn't mea-" But Jade had already bounded up and flung an arm around Sirius.

"You were right!" she said, ignoring Skye. "It was steep! You must be really smart, just like me! We'll make a great couple!" Sirius winced and delicately picked Jade's arm off of him. Skye rolled her eyes and started down the path, stumbling a little. The broad man was rounding a bend. Jade forgot Sirius for a moment and rushed around the bend. The sight was enough to make her mouth drop.

A hundred turrets and towers spread along the rocky cliff that the castle perched on, silhouetted against the black velvet sky. Little golden lights were winking from within the walls. A huge lake reflected the magnificent castle. The broad man shouted out,

"Pick a boat and get in!" Jade hurried down to the shore. She wanted to make sure that she was in a boat with Sirius. Unfortunately, his boat was already full. Darn you, Skye! Jade leapt into the boat next to theirs so she could at least be close to him. Sadly, it was filled with Thorn, Regall, and the ginger, Lily.

"We're about to start," she explained. On cue, the assistant called Hagrid rushed around the bend and got in the boat with the broad man.

"No more firs' years, Ogg!" Suddenly, the boats glided forward smoothly across the lake. Jade admired the rippling reflection of the castle and put her hand in to touch one of the golden windows. As her hand touched the water, a tentacle reached up and wrapped itself around her wrist briefly.

"AAAIIIIIEEEEEEEEEE!" Jade screamed, wrenching her wrist out of the tentacle's grip.

"What's goin' on over there?" called Hagrid.

"There's a- a something in the w-water!" stammered Jade.

"Aah, it's just the giant squid," Hagrid waved hand airily. "It don' mean no harm." Jade looked tentatively at the water. A small tentacle poked out and hovered hopefully. Jade gave a small smile and smacked a high five with it. The tentacle disappeared. She looked up to find Thorn, Regall, and Gingerlily staring at her.

"What?" asked Jade defensively. "It looked like it wanted a high five." Thorn rolled her eyes and Gingerlily shrugged. They all ducked as the boats went under a curtain of lichen and ground to a halt at the rocky shore. Jade looked up. A stone staircase wound underneath the castle to a big oak door. Jade took a deep breath. Whatever lay behind that door, she was willing to face it.

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**By the way, two more chapters will be added in all of half and hour. My friends and I are on a writing frenzy!**

**- Hogwarts914**


	4. Fights and Feasts

**And another chappy! My friends are ridiculous.**

**Disclaimer: I have done none of the owning of the Harry Potter. Get it?**

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Chapter 4 - Lily

Nervously, Lily clambered out of the boat and onto the rocky shore. The other first years were getting out of the boats, too. She spotted Jade's friend - Skye - getting out of a boat with four other boys. One of them, with messy black hair and glasses caught her eye and winked. Amused, Lily gave him a small wave.

The man called Ogg was now climbing the stone staircase. Lily, Thorn, and Regall followed him up to the huge oak door. Ogg motioned for them to be quiet and knocked three times. Immediately, it was opened by a stern and proper-looking witch. Her brown hair was pulled back into a tight bun, and a witches hat sat to one side on her head. Square glasses framed her shrewd eyes. Lily looked at her nervously.

"The first years for you, Professor McGonagall," said Ogg. Professor McGonagall nodded to him and turned to the first years.

"Well, come in," she said sharply. Startled, the crowd pushed its way past Ogg and Hagrid and timidly entered the castle. Lily gazed around in awe.

The gigantic entrance hall was lit up by bright torches. Tapestries hung down from stone walls, and corridors branched off of the hall. To the left were double doors even bigger than the one they had just come through, with ornate golden handles. To the right was a splendid white marble staircase that swept upwards to the other floors. Professor McGonagall was leading them over the flagstone floor to a small empty room. Everyone crowded in, exchanging anxious glances.

"Welcome," spoke Professor McGonagall crisply, "Before we start the feast, you must be sorted into the four Houses. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. While you…" Tuning out McGonagall for a minute, Lily saw Severus and sidled over to him.

"Slytherin is the best, right?" she whispered. Thorn and Regall had told her differently, but she wanted to know what her oldest friend thought. Sev started, unaware that she had crept up on him, then nodded and smiled.

"You have been listening to me after all!" he teased. Before Lily could reply, someone spoke from behind her.

"Slytherin? Who'd want to be in Slytherin?" Whipping around, Lily saw that the speaker was the boy with messy black hair. With him was the three other boys that Lily had seen him getting off the boat with, plus Skye, who gave Lily a small smile. Lily smiled back. Severus, however, had flushed pale pink.

"Where d'you want to go, then? Gryffindor?" he sneered.

"Yeah, actually." replied the black-haired boy. "Just like my dad." He turned to the boy beside him.

"What about you?" he asked.

"All my family's been in Slytherin," answered his friend. The black-haired boy leaned away from him, an expression of mock horror on his face. His friend punched him good-naturedly. "Yeah, well, I'm hoping to break a record and get into Gryffindor." They high-fived. Severus, who had looked smug when Slytherin was mentioned, now looked defensive again.

"Well, if you'd rather be brave than smart, then-"

"Whatever," interrupted the black-haired boy, fake yawning. "We both know you wouldn't have the guts to admit it, but you wouldn't be able to make it into Gryffindor by a long shot." Alarmingly, Lily noticed that Sev's fists were clenched. She put an arm in front of him and glared at the boys. How could she have been friendly to that black-haired boy?

"Stop it! We aren't even Sorted yet and we're already fighting!" The second boy raised an eyebrow at Severus.

"Must make you feel good that a girl has to protect you. Wow, you can't even stand up for yourself!" Lily saw Sev's eyes narrow and his hand dart toward his wand. She shot a pleading look at Skye, who pulled the second boy back.

"Stop it, Sirius! He never did anything to you!" Then she turned to the black-haired boy. "As for you, I really don't know who the heck you are, except for some reason you're my cousin's friend, but if you keep fighting I'm gonna curse you." The black-haired boy put his hands in the air.

"You over there! Stop fooling around and pay attention!" Professor McGonagall called. Lily turned around. She had totally forgot that there was a speech going on. McGonagall continued. "Now, you may follow me into the Great Hall." Lily followed Sev behind Professor McGonagall back over the entrance hall and into the Great Hall. Once again, Lily was speechless.

The cavernous room was filled with hundreds of floating candles. Four long wooden tables occupied most of the space. A smaller table sat at the opposite of the room. All five tables had sparkling goblets, silverware, and plates in front of each person. Many pale faces flickering in the candlelight gazed at the first years. Lily swallowed hard. She hadn't expected so many people. Professor McGonagall led them right up to the head table, where the teachers sat.

On a small wooden stool sat a raggedy black hat, with more patches than there was hat. As they watched, a rip near the brim opened and it began to sing. Lily listened, spellbound, as the hat sang of the four houses and their founding people. When it finished, the students at the surrounding tables clapped and the hat bowed to each one, then sat up straight and still. Professor McGonagall now came forward with a scroll of parchment.

"Please come forward when I call your name, put on the hat, and sit on the stool to be Sorted." Lily's stomach gave a nasty lurch. Perhaps she shouldn't have had so many Pumpkin Pasties. "Abbott, Rachel!" A dirty-blonde girl walked up timidly and put the hat on her head. Lily couldn't hear what the hat was saying, but it was definitely murmuring something.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" cried the hat. Rachel Abbott replaced the hat on its stool and ran to the table on the first year's immediate left, which was clapping.

"Ashe, Regall!" Lily crossed her fingers for her friend as Regall walked shakily up to the stool and put on the hat. A moment later…

"GRYFFINDOR!" Regall took off the hat to reveal a broad grin and went to the table on the far left.

"Black, Sirius!" Lily narrowed her eyes as Sirius confidently put the hat on.

"GRYFFINDOR!" Sirius took off the hat, gave a thumbs-up to the black-haired boy, and took his seat at the Gryffindor table. Lily watched increasingly nervously as "Brown, Maxfield!" and "Caffel, Orran!" were sorted into Ravenclaw and "Claremore, Jacey!" into Slytherin. Then, "Delaney, Skye!" was called. Lily watched Jade watch Skye anxiously. The hat muttered to Skye, who looked fearful.

"GRYFFINDOR!" Lily heard Jade groan as Skye put the hat on the stool and joined Regall and Sirius. She closed her eyes. It was coming, she knew it was coming…

"Evans, Lily!" The walk to the stool seemed very long. Lily gritted her teeth and jammed the hat on her head. It fell down to the bridge of her nose.

"Hmm...interesting." Lily nearly fell off the stool. The hat was speaking in her ear. "Talent, loyalty, courage...yess, I think it ought to be-GRYFFINDOR!" Knees shaking, Lily placed the hat carefully on the stool. Then she straightened up and walked to the Gryffindor table. Before sitting down between Regall and Skye, she looked over her shoulder.

Sev was watching her walk away, with a heartbreaking expression on his face. Lily gave him a sad little smile, but he turned away, hiding his face. Feeling guilty, Lily sat down and listened absentmindedly to the Sorting.

"Finnigan, Scarlett!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!" _Are you mad at me, Sev?_

"Lockhart, Gilderoy!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!" _I know you wanted me to be in Slytherin._

"Lupin, Remus!"

"GRYFFINDOR!" _But I thought you also wanted me to be happy._

"McNamara, Brody!"

"SLYTHERIN!" _Were you telling the truth when you said Slytherin wasn't evil?_

"Patil, Nadir!"

"RAVENCLAW!"_ Or did you just want me to follow you?_

"Pettigrew, Peter!"

"GRYFFINDOR!" _I'm so confused, Sev!_

"Polston, Daphne!"

"SLYTHERIN!" _Maybe you'll be a true Gryffindor, anyway._

Lily watched, hoping with all her might that her friend would get Gryffindor so they could be in the same house.

"Potter, James!" Lily watched as the arrogant black-haired boy she and Sev had fought with in the entrance hall strutted up to the stool, shooting a few girls (who swooned, Lily noticed. Thorn stuck her tongue out in disgust) winks. As soon as the hat skimmed his unruly ebony hair, it let out a shout.

"GRYFFINDOR!" The boy flashed a cocky grin and raced to sit next to Sirius at the Gryffindor table. Lily groaned. Now she was in the same house as that arrogant toerag. Could her life get any worse? Well, the only hope she had left was for Thorn and Sev to get Gryffindor. As if she summoned him, McGonagall shouted,

"Snape, Severus!" Lily sat up. Come on, please please please Gryffindor! she thought. Sev let the hat fall over his eyes, and Lily tensed. After what seemed a millenium, the hat shouted,

"SLYTHERIN!" _I'm sorry, Sev_. Lily avoided Sev's glance as she turned to talk to Regall, who was chatting away, to nobody.

"So, did you know that you were going to be in Gryffindor?" she said, trying to make conversation, which wasn't hard since Regall was so social.

"Well, I sort of knew, since my family is mostly Gryffindor, except for my dad and my two cousins and their mom who are all Ravenclaw. So pretty much I could either be a Gryffindor or a Ravenclaw. I think I am extremely brave and smart so the hat had a hard time deciding. Well, I like both houses, so I'm not upset. My dad of course is not exactly pleased, but my mom is ecstatic and I am more of a mom person, so I'm fine," Regall said, not stopping to take a breath.

Lily laughed. She had thought that Regall was an arrogant brat the first time she saw her, but now that she knew Regall better, she knew that Regall was easily one of the nicest people (though Thorn was still a smeenshy bit more) , as well as a bit insane, in a good way. She couldn't understand why Jade hated her.

In all her thinking, and all of Regall's non-stop talking, they had missed about 10 people. Now, a black and blue haired someone was being sorted. Regall looked up. Lily was surprised to see no hate on her face, no anger, and no spite.

"You don't hate her?" Regall shook her head.

"No. I don't hate her. I don't know why she hates me, and yes, I do say some cutting remarks to her, but then again, I say those to everyone." Lily looked at Regall with a new respect. She knew that however sarcastic , insane and boastful Regall appeared, she was really a soft person on the inside.

"RAVENCLAW!" the Sorting Hat shouted for Jade, and a shower of clapping roared from the table next to them.

"Waters, Thorn." McGonagall spoke. Regall tensed. So did Lily. Lily crossed her fingers as tight as she could underneath the table.

About two seconds later...

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Regall let out a high pitched WOOT and ran over to clap her friend on the back. Thorn looked as if her birthday had come early. The Gryffindor table cheered a deafening cheer. It seemed as if nothing could go wrong at this amazing moment. A couple other people got sorted, and then McGonagall took the hat and the stool away. A man behind her with a long silver beard, and at least 100 years old stood up.

"There's Professor Dumbledore!" Thorn whispered excitedly.

"Who's he?" Lily asked, curious.

"Only Hogwarts's most amazing headmaster," Regall replied with a hint of sarcasm in her voice, "If you weren't muggle-born, I'd slap you across the face for not knowing who he is." Thorn snickered.

"Of course, if it was Jade, she'd slap you either way... Trust me to know. Just yesterday, she slapped me about 300 times... and that's not even her record!" Thorn remarked.

Now it was Regall's turn to snicker. However, before she got the chance, a hush spread over the Great Hall.

"Welcome, to those who have just entered Hogwarts! And for those who are coming back, welcome back!" Dumbledore's voice was warm and friendly, and Lily already trusted him. "Now, will you please join me in singing the Hogwarts song! Any rhythm, any tune. All is appreciated!"

Everyone took a deep breath. Dumbledore got out his wand and conjured a purple ribbon which made itself into lyrics. The hall exploded with music.

_Hogwarts, Hogwarts,_

_Hoggy, warty Hogwarts_

_Teach us something please_

_Whether we be old and bald_

_Or young with scabby knees_

_Our heads could do with filling_

_Or some interesting stuff_

_For now they're bare and full of air_

_Dead flies and bits of fluff_

_So teach us things worth knowing_

_Bring back what we've forgot_

_Just do your best, we'll do the rest_

_And learn until our brains all rooooooooooooooooooot!_

Everyone finished at different times. The last were a pair of triplets in Hufflepuff which Lily didn't know the names of. Dumbledore conducted their off-pitch singing with his wand, and wiped a tear off his sleeve once everybody finished.

"Now, music is a magic that is more powerful than anything I can do..." he spoke solemnly. "And now, I want to say a few words: Nudnik! Ronyon! Zabaglione! Diddle! Thank you! Let the feast begin!"

"Is he crazy?" Lily asked Thorn.

"A bit," she replied, bemused.

* * *

**Bye. That's all I can say.**

**- Hogwarts914**


	5. Allies and Antics

**Disclaimer: Blah, Blah, I don't own Harry Potter, Blah, now ONTO DA STORY!**

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Chapter 5 - Regall

Regall had never seen so much food. Nope, never. Not even when half the Ministry came to her house to eat. There was so much food! In any normal circumstance, she wouldn't be able to eat half the food, since she was a vegetarian, but despite that, there were still so many choices!

Directly in front of her lay a huge plate of mac and cheese. This wasn't the dry, cardboard-tasting type they had at the Ministry. This was creamy, cheesy (duh), and moist. yum. There were also assorted pastas, like ravioli (her favorite), spaghetti, rigatoni, and so much more.

To her left, in front of Thorn, there was a big platter of beef, ham, pork, drumsticks, steak and more. Regall made up her mind to avoid that section.

To her right, in front of Lily, there were vegetables of all kinds: broccoli, carrots, corn, tomatoes, and salad. There was also various soups, steaming hot, all dolloped in sour cream, waiting to be devoured.

And there was so much fruit! Plums, apples, peaches, bananas, oranges, and pears galore. Regall wanted to stuff her face with the entire contents of this table, but knew that if she tried she would explode. Thorn wasn't even trying to hold herself back. Her plate was heaped with all her favorite foods and she was trying to gulp them down as fast as her esophagus could go.

Lily, on the other hand, looked a little shocked at this whole spectacle. Regall smiled at her and nodded at the food, encouraging her to go on. Lily tentatively took a bit of ravioli and mashed potatoes and ate a small bite. Her eyes widened and stared at the plate for a moment, still chewing. Then, she threw down her fork, picked up the plate and licked up the whole scoop of mashed potatoes. She grabbed the platter that held the ravioli and dumped half of it on her plate. Then, she dug in. Regall noticed that when Lily replaced the platter, it instantly refilled with more ravioli. Regall felt like she was in heaven. Food, replaced with more food. What could be better?

None of them were speaking. There was only one thing on their mind: FOOOOOD. Over next to Skye, Wynter and Sirius were trying to get her to eat. Skye kept shaking her head and moaning, holding her stomach. Sirius was so concerned he dumped his plate onto hers. Wynter was about to object, as Sirius had gotten pears and Skye was allergic and unfortunately loved the thing her allergy prevented. But to their astonishment Skye grabbed her fork and ate every pear, then grinned at them from a full mouth and said gleefully,

"I twickd oow!" Wynter sighed in exasperation and turned back to her own plate, as Sirius smirked and high-fived with Skye.

Regall grinned. Skye would be a good friend to have if she stopped snapping. Regall turned back to Thorn who didn't seem to get any less hungry. Now, she was gorging on chicken noodle soup, and slopping it all down her robes. Regall winced. She was a neat freak, and just couldn't bring herself to eat like that. Whatever. Scooping herself some more salad, (and picking out the peppers), Regall began to eat in earnest.

Suddenly, the dinner foods disappeared to be replaced by desserts of all kinds. Chocolate cake, apple pie, sherbert, ice cream of every flavor, treacle tart, vanilla pudding, creme donuts, you name it. Regall's eyes widened, but Thorn's nearly popped out.

"Second helpings for everything! I called dibs and don't you forget it!" she screamed to no one in particular, then lunged for the table. She scooped a huge helping of vanilla ice cream into a bowl and started wolfing down large gulps of it.

Regall grabbed as many donuts and cookies as she could and crammed them all into her mouth, careful not to get any crumbs on her robes. Looking over at Lily, she could see that Lily loved dessert. Her helpings overshadowed all others. It seemed as if half the table was on Lily's plate, which kept expanding to fit all the incoming food.

The black-haired boy called James, across from them, kept showing off for his friends (and possibly Lily?), throwing cookies up in the air and catching them in his mouth. Lily only frowned and it was clear that she wasn't impressed. The shabby boy next to James, whose name was Remus, Regall thought, kept laughing and tried to knock the cookies out of the air before James caught them. Another friend, the one called Peter, who was rather round and short and ugly in Regall's opinion, looked on with wide watery eyes, clapping and squealing every time James caught it in his mouth, which meant that there was a lot of clapping and squealing. Skye was glaring at them, her mouth bulging with pie, and yelled something incoherent. Regall thought it was something like,

"Shut up! Can't you see I'm busy eating here?!" But it sounded like: "Shug uff! Gand oo ee I'b izzy eadig eer?!" James grinned and threw a piece of cake at her, which Skye promptly caught in her overflowing mouth. Sirius and Remus cheered.

Regall laughed, and clapped a hand over her mouth to prevent it from spitting out bits of creme donut. Regall looked around the table for any more food that she liked. Soon, she realized that that wasn't a good choice, since the more she looked around, the more she wanted to empty every single platter of dessert in the entire Gryffindor table onto her now empty plate. Instead, she reached across the table to where James was sitting and scooped a block of mint chocolate fudge right under his nose, and onto her plate. James looked greatly offended, like Regall had swore at him or something, and dramatically clapped a hand over his heart. Thorn rolled her eyes.

Finally, (and somewhat disappointingly) the platters of desserts cleared, leaving everything sparkling clean, and Professor Dumbledore stood up once more. Regall felt so full and drowsy she could have started sleeping right there, but instead forced herself to listen to Dumbledore.

"Once again, we have enjoyed a wonderful start-of-term feast. I would like to tell the first years that the forest on the Hogwarts grounds forbidden." At that, Sirius grinned and motioned for a huddle with the other three. They all bent their heads and started whispering. Regall automatically knew that there would be no regard to that rule. "Our caretaker, Apollyon Pringle, wants to remind all of you that any trick or prank items are banned. Also, there is no magic in the corridors." Lily followed his gaze to an old man standing in the corner. His face was harsh, with yellow eyes glaring out from beneath the creases. Lily shivered and decided she didn't want to cross him. "Well, that's all! Good night!"

There was loud chatter going on, and Regall had a tough time hearing or finding her friends through the crowded Great Hall. When she reached them, they heard a voice yelling, "GRYFFINDOR FIRST YEARS, FOLLOW ME! THIS WAY TO THE DORMITORIES!" Regall, Thorn, and Lily turned to see a tall boy with lots of freckles and dark brown hair standing next to a blonde girl that was slightly shorter and had blue- green eyes. They both had prefect badges on, but were wearing red and gold ties. The boy and girl waited until all the first years had gathered around him, then set off. Up the marble staircase, down a stone passageway, through a tapestry, onto a moving staircase, past the knight painting, through a wall that was really a door…

Regall gave up trying to memorize the route and just concentrated on walking. To the side of her, Thorn was tripping on the trick steps, Sirius fell twice, Lily walked into a wall she thought was a door, Skye had a ghost go through her, and all the other first years were getting into silly accidents. Regall wondered if Jade had such a difficult time getting to the Ravenclaw dormitories. Finally, they reached an oil painting of a fat lady (who turned out to be called the Fat Lady) dressed in a silk dress.

"Welcome to the Gryffindor house dormitories," announced the prefect.

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**Yay! another chappy! and one more is almost done! **


	6. Passwords and Professors

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter isn't mine. At least not in this universe. Or any universe, sadly. *sigh***

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Chapter 6: Thorn

Thorn watched as the prefect spoke the password.

"Blubby? Is that even a legit password?" inquired Skye from behind her. Thorn shrugged.

"Don't ask me, I wouldn't know."

The Fat Lady nodded and swung forward to reveal a hole in the wall. Excitedly, the first years climbed through it into the common room.

The common room was a marvelous place, with small, crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, and large, fancy rugs on the floor. There were comfy armchairs and couches circling a cozy fire that was crackling merrily. Large portraits of famous Gryffindors hung on scarlet and gold walls. At the opposite of the room were two doors. Ellie directed them through the girl's door and up a spiral staircase to their dormitory. The first thing Thorn did when she was assigned a four poster bed in a First Year Girls Dormitory (which she shared with Regall, Lily, and Skye) was plop down on the red, silk mattress. She heard Skye letting out her black cat, Phantom, and Lily changing into pajamas, but the other girls soon fell onto their beds, too. Thorn felt to tired to get up, to brush her teeth, to talk, to do anything. The only thing on her mind was sleep. The other girls soon followed, after having such an exhausting day.

**THIS*IS*A* LINE*OF*THE*BREAK*VARIETY**

"Wake up, Thorn!" Someone was sitting on her. Thorn groaned and rolled over.

"It's so early!"

"There's breakfast ready in the Great Hall," said Lily's voice. Thorn threw off the covers.

"You didn't tell me!" Her roommates watched as Thorn hastily got dressed, then they all went down the spiral staircase. Once outside of their common room, however, they had no idea where to go.

"I think it was this way?" said Lily, indicating a moving staircase leading downward. Since they really didn't have a better idea, they decided to follow Lily. After a few minutes, however, it was clear that they were lost.

"Hey, that looks like a classroom door!" said Regall hopefully. "Let's knock on it and see if there's a teacher inside who can help us." She went up and knocked on the door. Immediately, the door blew open and a ghost sped out of it. Regall stumbled backwards as the ghost stopped in midair and eyed them, a malicious grin on his face.

"Ooh, what have we got here?" he cackled. "Poor wittle firsties are lost!" He swooped down, pelting them with bits of chalk that he had been collecting in the classroom.

"I think it's called Peeves," Skye whispered as they ducked. "Wynter told me how he's the castle's poltergeist." Peeves stopped and looked greatly offended.

"What did you call me? An it?! Peevesey will get you for that!" They ran away, Peeves chasing them and laughing, until they went around a corner and collided with four certain boys. Peeves snickered and threw some more chalk at them, then swept away towards the upper floors, singing rude words at the top of his lungs. All the first years helped each other up, then stood around, looking lost.

"Seriously, we need a map," grumbled Lily. James looked at her.

"Good idea," he said. "We ought to make one." Lily threw him a dirty look and he stopped talking.

"I think it might be through this tapestry," spoke Remus finally. They all filed through it and stood in a side chamber off of the entrance hall. They could hear the clinking of silverware and the buzzing of people talking from the Great Hall.

"Wow, good job, Remus!" said Skye enthusiastically. They all hurried into the Great Hall and took seats. Thorn glanced up at the ceiling. It was cloudy, with some blue sky peeking through. She looked up and down the table. Scrambled eggs, toast, cereal, bacon, and pancakes were heaped on platters. Thorn spotted some steak halfway down the table and grabbed it. She was sitting next to James who leaned over and started talking.

"I swear, they give us so much food it's like they want us to get fat!" he said. Thorn snorted.

"Not me, I have the incapability to get fat. It's weird." James rolled his eyes.

"Only because you have the energy of someone on enough sugar to give a heart attack to a water buffalo." Thorn took a bite of steak and turned to him.

"Now you're confusing me with Regall. I had to sit next to her once when she came over my house when she was on a sugar high! I thought I was going to die! She kept clutching my arm and cackling!"

"Aww. You poor thing. Just wait until we get to dessert." answered James sarcastically. Thorn elbowed him and finished her steak. Professor McGonagall was going down the table handing out schedules. Across the table, Peter grabbed his eagerly.

"Charms with the Ravenclaws first," he told everybody, "Then Herbology, then a break, then lunch. Not a bad morning." Then Sirius, who had gotten his schedule too, groaned.

"But look, after lunch we've got Potions with the Slytherins! And after that, History of Magic and double Transfiguration!" Skye leaned over to look at his schedule.

"Oh, come on, Wynn says that Transfiguration isn't that bad," she told him. Sirius gave her a look that said Are you kidding me?

"McGonagall is the toughest teacher! I'm gonna be dead, I stink at Transfiguration!"

"Yeah," Thorn interrupted, "I stink at Potions. Every time I have tried to help my dad with potions for work, they blow up in my face! Literally!"Just then, the bell sounded for first class. Regall and Lily caught up to Thorn in the hallway as they hurried to Charms.

"So. Potter, huh?" Regall nudged Thorn with her shoulder. "I saw you talking to him, whispering to each other."

"Sheesh, Thorn. We've hardly been here a day and you already fancy someone!" Lily smirked.

"You guys are idiots." Thorn chuckled. "He's my cousin! Regall, you knew that!"

"Ssuuurrrreeee," Regall rolled her eyes. They reached Charms just as the bell rang. Skye, Sirius, Peter, Remus, James, and two other first-year Gryffindor boys called Hunter and Frank were already sitting in their seats. Professor Flitwick was at the front of the room, waiting to start.

"Take a seat, girls," he squeaked to Thorn, Regall, and Lily. Then he turned to James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter, who were still talking."Settle down, now!" They kept talking. "Settle down, I said!" They kept talking. "Settle down!" They kept talking.

"YOU HEARD THE MAN, SETTLE DOWN!" roared Thorn.

"Yes, thank you," wheezed Flitwick.

There was a lot of snickering and giggling from people who were at least two feet taller than the little dwarf professor. The talking ceased a bit.

"Okay! Now for attendance!" squealed Flitwick. He pulled out a large roll of parchment that unraveled itself and hung and the professor's height. The list composed of both Gryffindors and Ravenclaws, which was why it was so freakishly long. Professor Flitwick cleared his throat.

"Please say here when I say your name. Jason Aline?"

A tall Ravenclaw with brown hair looked up.

"Here."

"Regall Ashe?"

"Present," she said with an air of defiance.

"Sirius Black?"

"Here!" And so on down the list. When Flitwick got to James's name, there was silence.

"I said James Potter!"

"Oh yeah, I'm here!" Muttering under his breath, Flitwick crossed off James's name. After they were all done with the attendance, Professor Flitwick rolled up the list and stood up on his desk.

"Welcome to Charms," he told them, beaming. "Over the course of the year, we will learn how to do several simple spells, as well as a few tougher ones near the end of the year. Today we will be learning how to cast a Fire- Making charm. By the end of the lesson, you should be able to make a jet of flame. If you are good at this, I will teach you how to make bluebell flames that are great for warming you up on cold days next class. The spells are similar but the bluebell flames require more concentration, if you don't want to burn yourself. The incantation is Incendio." Professor Flitwick passed out bits of parchment and wood. "You can try with a partner if you want. Off you go!"

Immediately, partnerships formed. Thorn and Regall sprang together, and Skye and Jade did the same. James and Sirius, Remus and Peter, Lily and Grace, who was a super nice Ravenclaw girl, and so on. Soon the cries of "Incendio!" filled the room. After a couple seconds, Professor Flitwick was forced to rush around, putting out various fires that the first years had made. Jade had lit her bit of parchment on the second try, and while she bragged, it started to burn the desk. Lily had pointed her wand at James by accident (or was it?) and made his sweater burst into flames, while poor Peter had unwittingly set fire to his own pants.

All in all, it was a great Charms lesson. Their homework was to read the chapter on the Fire-Making Charm and write a 10-inch long essay on its uses. Professor Flitwick waved them off good-naturedly when the bell rang, saying that it would take a while to learn how to do the spell correctly. Outside the classroom, Thorn headed for the entrance hall. According to her schedule, she had Herbology with just Gryffindors next. She went down the marble staircase, past the Great Hall, and out the front doors onto the grounds. The clouds had cleared a bit since she had seen the sky during breakfast, and the sun shone on the grass. Thorn made her way past the groundskeeper's hut and to the greenhouses standing in the shadow of the castle. Joining the first-year and second-year Gryffindors already there, she peered inside one of Greenhouse 1's windows.

Inside was one long table, with potted plants in the center. All around the edges of the greenhouse were smaller tables bearing plants of all shapes, colors, and sizes. It looked as if it were a gigantic plant itself. Each table had a number, the higher numbers holding plants that looked more dangerous. On the table reading '7' which was the highest number, the plants were chained to their pots so they wouldn't shred each other. Thorn guessed that these were for seventh years. The teacher had still not arrived for class yet, so Thorn curiously moved away from the crowd and looked into Greenhouse 2. This greenhouse looked more like a storage room, with shelves upon shelves of more plants. Some of them were moving around, tapping on the glass windows and trying to pull themselves off of the shelves. Interesting, but not interesting enough.

Thorn snuck over to Greenhouse 3. However, it was all dark inside. She strained her eyes, trying to make something out, when someone tapped her on the shoulder. Thorn whirled around. A round, short witch that had earth all over her from head to toe was standing in front of her.

"You're a curious one, eh?" the witch chuckled. "I used to be like that. Now come on, out with you. This is a dangerous greenhouse, and you shouldn't be in here," she said good-naturedly. Thorn immediately made up her mind to come in here at night with Regall. They went back to Greenhouse 1, and gathered with all the Gryffindors.

The witch introduced herself. "Hello, hello class! I am Professor Sprout! It's my very first year teaching here at Hogwarts, and I hope we will have a fun time together!"

"Now," the witch began, "today is our very first lesson together! Many think Herbology is a weak, silly subject, but actually, it is one of the most important! Say you find yourself covered in, oh I don't know, a Devil's Snare, and you don't know how to save yourself! You could be killed!" The whole class stared at her. Being killed by a plant? Impossible! "But, if you want to save yourself (which I'm assuming you do), then all you need to know is Devil's Snare doesn't like fire! A little Incendio oughta do the trick!"

She moved to a different side of the room, and stood next to a tall boy with wavy brown hair. "Young man, you seem like a good role model, tell me your name please?"

"Frank, ma'am." the boy answered

"Frank who? Frank FRANKENSTEIN?"

"Longbottom, ma'am. Frank Longbottom." the boy sounded embarrassed. Thorn thought he had a funny last name. Longbottom. Hah. Thorn was glad she had a normal last name, Waters.

"Ok, Longbottom. Now, stand here. This is not a Devil's Snare, don't be afraid." The boy relaxed as the professor placed a plant in front of him. "This is a Mandrake! Warning, they are… erm… loud. Yes, very, very loud. And obnoxious. Just like you!" She pointed a different student whispering to a peer. The girl looked very embarrassed. "What's your name, young lady?"

The girl turned bright red, even redder then the color of her hair. "Molly Prewett."

"Prewett, eh? I know your mum, now I don't want to tell her Molly's not been doing so well in class, now do I, Molly?"

Molly Prewett quickly shaked her head no.

"Good, good then. Back to Longbottom. What I want you to do with this is tell me what you're going to do first when I hand everyone out their Mandrakes."

Longbottom thought about it for a bit. "Leave it be, and walk away slowly." The whole class laughed.

"Think that's funny, don't ya? Lets see how funny it is when you see all your friends are dead because they heard a mandrake's cry. Now does anyone know what a Mandrake does?"

Skye's hand shot into the air.

"Yes, dear...Skye?"

"Mandrakes' cry are fatal to those who hear it and could result in immediate death if they are full grown. If they aren't you could still get knocked out for several hours or days. However, Mandrakes are excellent in potions for those who are petrified." Skye recited.

"Wonderful. Take five points for Gryffindor. I am now passing out earmuffs. Make sure they're on snug. We don't want you being knocked out by our little friend's cry!" Professor Sprout made it seem happy that Thorn's eardrums were at risk of exploding.

Everyone put on the earmuffs, then turned towards Sprout again. "Now that we're ready, we're going to have Mr. Longbottom carefully pull the Mandrake upwards! Don't hurt it, there you go. Everyone get ready… and here it is!" An ugly baby-looking plant sprung up from the pot, its mouth wide. Thorn couldn't hear the scream, but her eardrums were vibrating fast . At a signal from Professor Sprout, Frank plunged the Mandrake back into its pot. Everyone took off their earmuffs, panting at the silent vibrations of their ear.

"So, everybody get into groups of four and start repotting these babies!" There was a murmur as everybody got into groups and started grabbing empty pots and tightening their earmuffs.

Thorn was in a group with Regall (obviously), Skye and the Molly girl that kept talking. Molly was hard not to like. It was even harder to dislike Grace, the sweetheart in Ravenclaw. Grace was a friend of everybody, and nobody in particular. (No, not even Jade disliked her.) Molly was not that level of nice, but she was so talkative and happy, that she made everyone around her talkative and happy.

"Do I have to pull it out?" Molly asked for about the 50th time. Regall rolled her eyes.

"Unless you want Professor Sprout to tell your mother," Regall put on an imitation of Professor Sprout's voice, "Mrs. Prewett, your daughter Molly, as well as talking non-stop, is not participating in class activities . She is making my favorite student sad, and I dislike teaching her, and I will go into depression if she continues like this." Everybody burst into hysterical laughter. Molly was laughing so hard that tears were streaming down her cheeks. Regall looked fairly pleased with herself. "Well go on then, Molly. Pull it out."

Everybody fastened their earmuffs, as Molly grabbed the Mandrake, and tugged hard. The hideous baby came out and was clearly screaming at the top of its lungs. One boy's earmuffs weren't on tight enough, and he collapsed to the floor.

"Oh, dear. Someone escort this boy to the hospital wing!" Professor Sprout worried. Molly looked guilty, and volunteered to bring him down. "Thank you Molly. Now everybody, please make sure that your earmuffs are on tightly so that Madam Pomfrey won't have all the Gryffindor first and second years in the hospital wing," she announced

Thorn smirked at the petrified looks on everybody's faces.

She liked Professor Sprout.

Something cool had happened on the first day.

****All in all, she loved Hogwarts.

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**My friends and I are on a roll! Reviews would be supercalafragalisticexpialadoscious (P.S I don't think I spelled that right and I don't own Mary Poppins)**


	7. Jokes and J'adore

**HI GUYS! It's been a little while since I have updated, and I want to apologize for not updating my other story, I just hit a major writers block. It's practically smacking me in the face!**

**Disclaimer: I could've never of come up with the glorious and majestic series that is Harry Potter. So therefore, how could I own it?**

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Chapter 7: Skye

Skye laughed so hard after Herbology, she didn't think in her whole miserable life, she had laughed so much. That stupid red-haired kid! (Not Molly, the other one... the Weasley). Jade should have been there. Wait… Jade wouldn't have laughed… oh yeah. Stupid self, Skye thought.

Next was a break, thank goodness. Skye hurried back up the grounds, catching up to Sirius and his friends. Their heads were together, whispering about something, probably illegal. When she caught up, they stopped talking, but Sirius smiled at her.

"It's fine," he said to them. "Skye won't tell. She'll probably even want to take part in it." James looked at her suspiciously. "It's okay," Sirius insisted. "One time, during some family reunion, my idiot brother saw us sneaking some fireworks out onto the roof-it was gonna be a great show-and ran to tattle. Doing some quick thinking, Skye chucked a Dungbomb at just as he was running through our mom's bedroom, where we had climbed through the window. When my mom thought he had set off the Dungbomb, she made him do house-elf duties for a month. Plus, we got away with our awesome fireworks show." Remus laughed. James beckoned them over to under some tree.

"So here's the plan," he whispered. "This period is a break. So I thought, 'We shouldn't waste it studying like everyone else, let's do something worthwhile.' You know that snotbag, Snivellus? Well, I think we should-"

"Oi, Potter!" The five of them turned to see Thorn and Regall running down the hill towards the huddle. "You wouldn't be planning anything, would you? If you are, you'd better tell us. You know how annoyed I get when I don't know things," Thorn stated.

"Nothing!" All four boys said a little too quickly.

Regall eyed them suspiciously.

"Ya think you can pull off a prank without us? Well that's not happening," she declared stubbornly. Skye glared at the two of them. Just running into a secret.

"Well whatever it is, we are definitely not telling you two! In about a day or two, all of Gryffindor will know it!" she snapped. Thorn and Regall exchanged a knowing glance.

"Your loss," shrugged Thorn. Skye breathed a sigh as they turned around and walked away. However, she didn't know how persuasive this pair could be. As they were walking away, she could hear them whispering to each other, a bit too loudly.

"Remember that time when you and I all set fake fire to your mom's wedding dress? She cried her heart out and made us evacuate the house!" laughed Regall. Thorn snorted.

"Oh, and that other time when we bewitched Torin's hat so he couldn't take it off? And we stole all his Christmas presents and made them look like they were sent to us?" Thorn recalled. Regall's eyes widened at the memory.

"Yep, I remember that one so clearly! Torin still stays up during Christmas to take all his presents to his room. Pity. We could've pulled that one off again," Regall said. Thorn nodded in agreement.

Skye cocked her head and turned to the boys.

"What do you think?" she asked them meaningfully. Remus shrugged, then nodded, as did Sirius. Peter quickly followed, since he copied anything they did. James, however, was staring after them. "Um, James?" Skye waved a hand in front of his face. He looked at her, a little dazed.

"Aren't those Evans' friends?" he demanded.

"Yeah, I guess so. And don't call her Evans, her name's Li-" But James was already sprinting after the girls, calling to wait. They swung around expectantly.

"You guys can help," he panted. "If-and only if- you introduce me to Evans..." James' eyes glazed over. Thorn and Regall looked perfectly happy, if a bit freaked out by James, and came to join them under the tree.

"So, what's the plan?" Thorn asked curiously, her eyes shining.

James's eyes brightened as he explained the plan. "I went to the library-" He was cut off by Regall.

"You know what a library is? Good for you, James!" Regall laughed as she spoke. Everyone else joined except for James.

"You wanna be in this or not? Anyway, I read about a spell that lifts people up in the air. It's called Ascendio. We can use this little guy to lift Snivellus up by his big fat nose!" James smiled, and gave a small maniacal laugh. Thorn, Skye and Regall stared at him.

"That's so lame," Thorn said scathingly. Skye nodded her head in agreement.

"Want to know how to really pull of a prank?" Skye asked. James looked a bit down. Skye softened her voice. "Here, it's nothing against you, we just all thought of things differently. Thorn was a little too judgmental, weren't you Thorn?" Skye winked and nudged her in the ribs. Thorn got the hint.

"Right, yeah *wink wink nudge nudge* I was a little harsh on you." James looked a little happier."Yeah, I guess even I knew that it was kind of bad. But I'm really out of practice with pranking, so if any of you have ideas, speak up."

Regall's eyes widened. She whispered something to Thorn, whose eyes also widened. A grin formed on their faces.

"Huddle, people!" called Regall. Skye felt herself be squished between Peter and James. Peter smelled unpleasantly like stale cheese and James was drooling on her shoulder, still thinking about 'Evans'. Wonderful.

"So here's the plan..." muttered Regall and whispered it. Skye's blue eyes glinted and her mouth twisted into a small, devilish smirk.

"So, I guess the question is, who's gonna do it?" inquired Sirius.

"I think we'd have James do it, since it was his idea for a prank, but he's too chicken," snickered Thorn.

"I wouldn't be talking," scoffed James. Skye rolled her eyes. If they just stood around all day bickering, it would be pretty obvious what they were planning.

"Just shut up!" she shouted. " He'll notice if we just keep standing around here, obviously planning something!" Everyone turned to look at her. James narrowed his eyes.

"If you're so smart," he said, "Then maybe you should do it." Skye glared at him. She knew he expected her to back down, and Skye would rather kiss the giant squid than give him that satisfaction. On the other hand, Wynter would be really mad at her if she knew what Skye was about to do. First day, and already pulling pranks! No, she knew what Wynter would say. " I can't believe you'd do that, Skye! Mom would be so disappointed!" Wynter had no right to say that! Mom would be proud of her. Right?... Well, then, Skye had some news for Wynter. Her life was not going to be like what it was at home, having to take care of her dad, who sunk into misery more each day. Now it was Skye's turn to shine, Skye's turn to show her sister that there was more to the skinny blonde kid with holes in her jeans than meets the eye.

Skye came out of her reverie and saw James' smug face still in front of her, waiting for a response.

"Fine," said Skye, "I'll do it." And with that, she scribbled something down on a bit of parchment and marched away, looking for a greasy-haired git somewhere. Suddenly, Thorn and Regall stood in front of her.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," exclaimed Regall, "Give us that bit of parchment. Your handwriting looks nothing like McGonagall's."

Skye sighed and handed it over. Thorn and Regall bent their heads over it, arguing and squabbling as to what looked the most like McGonagall's handwriting. After five minutes and 49 seconds (Skye knew because she counted), the handwriting was perfected. Skye picked it up and continued to scan the grounds for Snape. Thorn, Regall, Sirius, James, and Remus in tow (Peter had gotten lost in the couple of meters that they had already walked). After a little while of this, Skye whirled around.

"Okay, this is not going to work," she told them. "Why don't Remus, Sirius, and James go find Snape-"

"Snivellus." corrected James.

"Whatever," Skye snapped.

"No this will work. Regall and I did this one to Jade and locked her in Mom's room. Mom forbade her from Quidditch for a week! It was hilarious! Just go find him and distract him while the rest of us do the actual work," Thorn said.

"I think I've already found him," Sirius said quietly, pointing.

Sitting under a tree by the lake, completely oblivious to the little group now staring at him, was Snape. And right next to him was a green-eyed, red-haired girl. Skye glanced at James, whose eyes widened. Then his fists clenched. Remus quickly grabbed him by the back of his robes as James furiously fought to get to the two under the tree, laughing and talking and unaware of the raging James.

"Lemme-throttle-his-unworthy-neck!"choked James, still fighting Remus, "He -is -not -worthy -enough -to -talk -to -her!" Remus shot a look over his shoulder that clearly said, HELP! Sirius rushed forward to help pull James back.

It took a little while to calm James down, including a lot of lying such as saying that they personally knew that Lily hated Snape, really, and was being bewitched by him. After he had finally calmed down enough, they sent him off with Sirius and Remus to go make a distraction with a couple of Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start, No-Heat Fireworks. Skye motioned for Thorn and Regall to crouch down behind a bush so that they could still see what was going on, but were hidden from any suspicious eyes.

It didn't take long for the boys to come through. In mere seconds, a brilliant streak of bright pink soared into the sky and exploded, showering the stunned courtyard with golden stars. A purple and green streak joined it, this time exploding into the shape of a lion, which roared and disappeared amidst five more fireworks. Snape and Lily were watching with wide eyes, laughing as the teachers rushed around, trying to find the source of the fireworks. Skye had to admit, the boys had done their work well. They had planted the fireworks, then hidden nearby and set them off with their wands. The teachers were clueless. Suddenly, Regall nudged her.

"Aren't you going to do it?" she hissed. Skye started, then crept out from the bushes and towards Snape and Lily, who were still staring upwards. Snape's bag was beside him, its seams nearly bursting with all the textbooks he had managed to cram in. Quietly, Skye slid the note carefully into Snape's Transfiguration book so it was poking out, then crept back to Thorn and Regall and waited for the boys to join them. At last the fireworks stopped, and the students continued their normal routine as the teachers still searched fruitlessly for the culprit. Skye held her breath as Snape reached into his bag for some books to study and his fingers brushed the note.

"What's this?" he frowned, pulling it out. Lily leaned over so she could read what it said, then frowned too.

"'Mr. Snape, I would like to see you in my office tonight at ten-thirty P.M. sharp. - Professor M. McGonagall.'" Lily finished reading the note and looked at Snape, confused. "Did you do anything to make her mad at you, Sev?" Her friend stared at the note in his hand, then back up at her.

"No," he answered. "At least, I don't think so."

"Hmmm." Lily looked thoughtful. "This doesn't make any sense. Unless-" Skye crossed her fingers- "she just wants to congratulate you on your terrible skill at Transfiguration!" Snape rolled his eyes. Thorn, Regall, and Skye exchanged glances. They all knew that Snape would have made a much bigger deal if anyone else had said he had terrible skill, but Lily was an exception. Suddenly, three boys burst out of the bushes behind them.

"Did you do it?" asked Sirius breathlessly. Skye nodded. "Phew," Sirius sighed, "Man, it seemed like those teachers wouldn't give up till Dumbledore himself told them off. I guess we're gonna have to watch our step, Jamesey." He grinned at James, knowing that his friend hated being called by that nickname. James put Sirius in a headlock and gave him a noogie.

"Don't - Call - Me - JAMESEY!" Sirius laughed it off and stood up just as the bell for lunch rang. Thorn and Regall left to walk up to the Great Hall with Lily, while Skye headed up with Sirius, Remus, James, and Peter, who they had found gnawing on a bit of cheese he had found in his pocket.

Leaning her head on her cousins' shoulder, James's arms slung around hers and Remus's necks, and the scent of Peter's stale cheese making them all cough and laugh, Skye felt like she was finally home.

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**WOOT! So, my friends and I have been talking, and we figured that we haven't had enough Lily! We shall be switching off chapters with her, as she is the main character!**

**Reviews will be very much appreciated. Thanks!**

**-Hogwarts914**


	8. Ghosts and Gloom

**I'm back! Two more chapters at the least will be posted today! This one, and another one! I'm sorry I haven't been updating! I've been so busy!**

**On the bright side, I'm healing! Some of you might have known that I broke my arm a few weeks back, so I was in a cast for 5 weeks. Well, now the cast is off, and I just have a sling! That means more stories! *happy dance***

**Sorry, I'm tired and happy, so I'm kind of delusional.**

**ENJOY!**

**Disclaimer: If you look in the top left corner of the screen, you will see the URL. . Emphasis on the FAN part, so since I'm a FAN, I don't own anything you might recognize.**

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Chapter 8: Jade

The full blast of the noise in the Great Hall met Jade's ears as she sauntered over to the Ravenclaw table, nose buried in a book. Sitting down in a seat that her friend Grace had saved for her, Jade looked around, searching for Skye. There she was, coming in with that Potter snob and the weirdos Lupin and Pettigrew. Jade personally thought that Skye could do better than them. Wait, who was that other person Skye was talking to… _Sirius?_ Just thinking his name made Jade swoon in happiness. Grace, who was politely scooping herself some scrambled eggs and ham, caught her before she fell in the mashed potatoes.

Jade quickly sat up. He hadn't seen that, had he? She didn't want him to think that she was clumsy. What did her hair look like? Had she even brushed it today? Would he like the clothes she was wearing? Jade looked over at the Gryffindor table, trying to make eye contact, but Sirius had already sat down. Disappointed, she pouted through the rest of lunch, then when the bell rang to signal the end of lunch pushed through the crowd towards the Gryffindor table and slid next to Skye.

"Can you introduce me to *sigh* Sirius?" Jade giggled. Skye laughed. She seemed in a much better mood than before.

"I already did, remember? On the train? When you were veryveryveryveryvery pleased to meet him?" Jade blushed at the memory.

"Well, I meant more… _personally_." Jade waggled her eyebrows meaningfully. Skye rolled her eyes at her.

"Fine," she said as Jade squealed and threw her arms around Skye. "But don't be really weird around him like you were last time, _capisce_?" Jade agreed without really listening to what Skye was saying. "I have to go now Jade, so I'll see you later, okay?" Skye ran off with the other Gryffindors.

Jade just stood dreamily in the middle of the doorway of the Great Hall for a while, until people started shoving her. In the Entrance Hall, she took a look at her schedule and set off for her Astronomy lesson with the rest of the Ravenclaw first-years. She climbed the marble staircase and set off for the Astronomy Tower. The only problem, Jade realized, was that she didn't know where the Astronomy Tower was.

"Ah crap," she cursed, trying to prevent some swears from pouring out of her mouth. The bell rang, signalling the start of class. She was lost and late, okay, big deal. But what was really about to become a problem was Peeves, who was cackling nearby with a trash can in his hands. Jade glanced at him nervously. He hadn't noticed her yet. Maybe she could sneak into that side corridor and make a getaway…

"Is the poor wittle firstie lost?" Peeves crooned. Jade flinched. _Darn_. She tried to inch closer to the side hallway, keeping her eyes on Peeves, who swooped nearer. "Peevesy can help the firstie get to class," said Peeves in what was supposed to be an innocent voice. Jade narrowed her eyes and shook her head at him. She was almost to the side hallway. Peeves' face scrunched up in mock hurt and he began to bawl. Jade gave him an apologetic glance and, with a sigh of relief, darted into the side hallway. However, turning her back on Peeves was the worst mistake she could make.

In an instant, Peeves swooped after her, pelting Jade with the contents of the trash can. Rotten tomatoes and moldy cheese splattered over Jade, who ran for her life through the halls of Hogwarts, no longer caring where she was going. Peeves was having the time of his life (or would it be death?), cackling madly and hurling bits of garbage at Jade. Finally, she delayed Peeves for a little while by piling up some chairs in the middle of a hallway and took in her surroundings. She had no idea where she was, or even what floor. The only decorations was a tapestry of some stupid guy trying to teach trolls ballet. Jade would have looked at it more closely, but she needed to hurry, she could hear Peeves swearing in the distance.

_I need a place to hide! _Jade thought desperately. Suddenly, she noticed a door that she was certain hadn't been there before. Jade was suspicious that it was one of the many fake doors, but she could hear Peeves coming. Cautiously, she opened it, and she found a _changing room_. To her delight, there was a new set of robes on a dresser and a note in what looked like Professor Flitwick's handwriting excusing her for being late. Shrugging, Jade ducked behind a changing screen, even though she knew nobody except her was in there. The new set of robes looked exactly her ruined ones. Perfect. Taking Professor Flitwick's note, Jade peeked out of the classroom, looking for Peeves, but there was no sign of him. Perhaps the caretaker had found him.

Newly confident, Jade set off for the Astronomy Tower, note in her hand. She still didn't know where it was, but decided to use trial and error, since she could take her time now. She decided to use common sense and headed upward. There was a long twirling staircase which seemed to lead to a tower. After what seemed hours, Jade reached the end of the staircase, but there was no door. Above her head was a circular silver trapdoor, which swung down, emptying a rope ladder onto Jade's head. Grumbling, she shoved it off and began to climb.

Cautiously hoisting herself out of the trapdoor hole, Jade sat on the floor and looked around. She was in what seemed to be a classroom, but a classroom that was unlike anything Jade had ever seen.

Overstuffed armchairs and footrests cluttered the floor, with elaborately decorated wooden tables. The room smelled a little exotic, like herbs from forests far away. There was a fireplace with a rocking chair in front of it on an adjacent wall. Jade glanced away, then swung her head back around to stare at the empty rocking chair with wide eyes.

The chair was still rocking.

"Hello there," spoke a voice softly in her ear. Jade screamed loud enough to raise the dead. Once she calmed down enough to do anything else, she turned around and promptly screamed again.

Behind her was something that resembled a woman, but she was covered in gaudy shawls and skirts with way too much fringe and bling. Bulging eyeballs peeked out from a mass of tie-dyed head scarfs. Jade was now to shocked and weirded out to scream now.

"Don't be scared, you're safe here." the voice murmurred. "Welcome to the Divination room. I'm Professor C. Trelawney. I predicted you'd come here, so I set up a little place for you to rest. I knew you'd be in shock." Jade nervously looked around the room. It still looked normal. Well, normal for a creepy old attic that felt 50 degrees!

"Uhhhhh... I'm okay, thanks," stammered Jade as she slowly backed away. Professor Trelawney shook her head imploringly, causing a scarf to fall off.

"Surely you are tired?" she whispered. Jade's eyeballs widened.

"N-no. I-I'm fine. I needa go to Astronomy s-so y-y-yeah. Um... b-bye. N-nice meeting you," Jade stuttered and made a dash for the trapdoor. However, the weird lady stepped in between her and the exit.

"Are you quite sure, child? " the woman murmured softly. "I have plenty of calming herbal teas all ready for you." She held up a blue china cup which was cracked in several places, and from which a strong, sweet aroma was wafting. Jade felt sick merely smelling it, let alone drinking it.

"Oh yeah, I'm quite sure!" Jade said quickly, her eyes watering from the scent. The Boogie Woman looked a little hurt. "I mean, I'd normally like some tea, but, uhh, I just, um, drank something, so I'm not really thirsty. Thank you anyway." Boogie Woman looked a little happier.

"Well, do you need any help?"

"Actually, yeah, I do. Where is the Astronomy Tower?" The professor picked up some parchment and tapped it with her wand. A simple dotted line appeared, winding its way through hallways. Boogie Woman handed the parchment to Jade.

"Just follow the dotted line. It will lead you to the Astronomy Tower."

"Thank you," said Jade, flashing something that resembled a smile at the professor as she climbed back down the ladder. Once on the landing, she let out a long breath and set off, her eyes glued to the parchment.

Jade didn't even know where she was when the line finally came to an end. Stuffing the now blank parchment into her bag, she looked up. A large wooden door with a golden knob stood in front of her. Turning the knob, Jade entered the Astronomy Classroom.

It was quite small, about the size of her dormitory, probably because the students did not spend very much time it. There was a model of the solar system in the middle, surrounded by a circle of desks. There were posters of different planets on the stone walls, which were punctured by small archer's windows that showed a magnificent view of the castle and grounds. Jade crept over to one and gulped.

Over on the Quidditch field, a group of first-years were slowly flying around. They were beetle-sized at this height. Holding her stomach and willing herself not to get nauseous, Jade slowly explored the classroom until she found a doorway that led to a spiral staircase. Peeking out at the top, Jade saw the rest of her classmates peering through telescopes and Professor Callisto teaching them how to use the equipment properly. Jade watched as Professor Callisto sharply told off Forrest Kennicott and Hudson Rivers for unhinging the telescopes and having a mock duel. Unfortunately, the Astronomy professor sounded very strict. Taking a deep breath, Jade climbed out of the turret and stepped onto the top of the Astronomy Tower.

It was really windy up here, and the coldness made Jade's eyes water. She barely had time to get a better grip on the stone battlements when Professor Callisto whipped around.

"LATE!" She screeched, advancing on Jade, who seriously considered jumping off the Astronomy Tower for a minute to escape the menacing professor. The professor's eyes flashed menacingly, as she towered over Jade.

"15 POINTS FROM RAVENCLAW! THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!" she roared. Jade replaced Professor Binns with this lady on her least favorite teacher list.

"B-but, Prof-fessor-" Jade stammered.

"NO EXCUSES!" barked Professor Callisto, grabbing Jade by the upper arm and steering her over to a solitary telescope.

"B-but, Professor, I have a p-pass from Professor Flitwick." The Astronomy Professor released Jade by the arm and held out a hand. Shivering, Jade handed over the pass, hoping that the signature was legitimate. After scanning the pass, Professor Callisto looked down her nose at Jade, who held her breath, waiting for her sentence to fall. However, she was completely thrown off by what the professor did next.

"Oh, sweetie, it's okay," smiled Professor Callisto, hugging her. Jade squeezed out of her surprisingly strong grip. "I'm sorry for being so harsh on you. Why don't I help you catch up with what we're doing?" Leading a stunned Jade over to the telescope, the professor gently placed Jade's hands on the telescope in the correct position. "Right now, we're learning how to use the Astronomy equipment. Your real Astronomy lessons will be at night. But for now, you can explore with the telescopes and other space equipment we'll be using." Beaming, Professor Callisto gave Jade a lollipop and swept off towards the other side of the Astronomy Tower. Jade sat there, stunned for a moment before Grace tapped her lightly on the shoulder.

"Are you alright?" Blinking rapidly, Jade stared after Professor Callisto, who was now sobbing her heart out because she'd accidentally stepped on an ant, then at Grace.

"What on earth was that about?" Grace shrugged. With a sigh, Jade turned to her telescope, sucking her lollipop.

Their Astronomy lesson turned out to actually be quite fun. Professor Callisto was very entertaining, though didn't know it, and Jade spent most of the lesson laughing hysterically at the professor instead of doing what she was supposed to. When Professor Callisto wasn't ecstatic or gloomy or outraged or sorrowful or whatever else, she could actually be a decent teacher. Jade was learning a bit about constellations and planets, before Mirabelle Greenfield told one of those super cheesy jokes to Sally Jacobs. This is about how it went:

Mirabelle: What did one ocean say to the other ocean?

Sally (rolling her eyes): I don't know.

Mirabelle: Nothing, they just waved! Hahahaha-

Professor Callisto (slapping her knee hysterically): HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! THAT WAS THE BEST ONE I'VE HEARD IN A LONG TIME! (slaps Mirabelle on the back appreciatively) 20 POINTS TO RAVENCLAW!(collapses on the ground, still laughing as the bell rings) Jade sighed as she slung her bag over her shoulder and stepped over Professor Callisto.

**"****Does that mean she hasn't heard any jokes?" whispered a girl named Julianne Fane. Jade laughed. It was gonna be a long year at this rate.**

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**Yes, Professor Callistro has incredibly bad mood swings. Heh.**

**Next chapter up soon! Bye! XD REVIEW PLEASE!  
**

**- Hogwarts914 and friends!**


	9. Luck and love

**It's been so long! Ten minutes! WOW!**

**I seriously have nothing to say, so...**

**Disclaimer: I'm running out of good ways to say I don't own Harry Potter or anything recognizable.**

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Chapter 9: Lily

Hurrying to catch up with Thorn and Regall, Lily shoved her History of Magic textbook back into her bag. If only she could get to them before he popped up-

"Not so fast, Evans," Silently swearing, Lily glared at the smirking black haired boy blocking her way.

"What do you want, Potter?" At first, James seemed a little surprised at the venom in her voice, but quickly dismissed it and smiled even wider, to Lily's annoyance.

"Just wondering if maybe you wanted to, umm, uhh-" James - no - Potter went a deep cherry red, then hurried away. Lily stared after him, mystified. Suddenly, she was shoved aside by none other than Black, Pettigrew, and Remus, the only one of Potter's gang that Lily liked. Black sniggered at the sight of Potter disappearing down the hallway.

"What did you do now, Evans?" He sneered. Lily straightened defiantly.

"I didn't do anything!" she replied angrily. "_He _was the one who came up to me and asked me if I maybe 'wanted to, umm, uh'!" Black's face became gleeful, as did Pettigrew's. Even Remus's face looked a little interested.

"I didn't think he'd have the guts to do it!" Black crowed.

"Well, by the sounds of it, he didn't." Remus said, and took off down the hallway after his friend. Sirius and Pettigrew followed, leaving Lily even more mystified as she joined Thorn and Regall.

"What was that about, Lily?" Regall asked curiously. Lily shook her head.

"I really honestly don't know," she answered. Wanting to change the subject, she asked Thorn what they had next.

"Potions with the Slytherins," Thorn groaned. "Great. Now we have to deal with that greasy slimeball, Snivellus Snape." Lily frowned at her.

"Sev is my friend!" Lily quickly defended him. The others looked at her incredulously.

"Lil, do you think you'll survive your life with a Slytherin? At least James Potter is a Gryffindor! Quite admirable, don't you think?" Lily pretended to barf.

"I can't believe you'd say that! Anyway, you don't know that much about Se-"

Thorn interrupted Lily. "Why do we need to know him? Pretty much every Slytherin turns out the same. Dark. Evil." She lowered her voice. "Many end up in Azkaban." Regall looked like she agreed with Thorn, even though she wasn't arguing.

"Sev's different you guys! I promise!" Lily was beginning to feel desperate.

"First of all, stop calling him Sev. Second, we're going to be late to class if we stand here bickering!" Regall quickly stopped the argument before it got any worse. Lily just glared at them and speed walked the rest of the way to the dungeon for Potions.

"Gather round, class, gather round!" The enthusiastic Professor Slughorn called to his class. Lily pointedly walked away from Thorn and Regall to Sev, who acknowledged her with a smile."Today, we're going to learn about some special substances, and we'll end with starting to brew a potion for curing headaches!." He held up a gold liquid splashing of its own accord in its flask. "Does anyone know what this is?"

Lily shyly raised her hand. She remembered reading about this in a book she bought in Diagon Alley.

"Hmm, let's see... Miss Evans, in the back?" The Professor picked her out.

"It's called Felix Felicis, sir. Liquid Luck, more commonly."

The Professor clapped his hands. "Bravo, Miss Evans, bravo! That's exactly correct! Take 5 points for Gryffindor! I wonder how a first-year Muggle Born might have known that?" He saw the look on Lily's face. "Oh, I didn't mean anything against muggle-borns!"

"I read a book I got in Diagon Alley," she said, feeling her face turn almost as red as Potter's. Slughorn smiled jovially at her.

"Well, seems like we have quite the little bookworm here!" Lily blushed again and Sev patted her on the back appreciatively as the professor turned to address the rest of the class. "So, that is Felix Felicis, which brings luck to the drinker. Does anyone here know its properties?" Professor Slughorn had an amused expression as Lily's hand crept into the air again. "Yes, Miss Evans?"

"It makes you lucky!" An excited murmuring spread among the students as Slughorn nodded to Lily and continued his speech. "Yes, indeed, Felix Felicis does make you lucky, but it is very hard to brew and can have horrible effects if you get it wrong. Therefore, we will not be making it today." He placed the vial back on his desk, accepting the disappointed groans good-naturally. "Now, this one here," Slughorn indicated a dark, shadowy potion swirling slowly around in its cauldron. "This is the Draught of Living Death. Does anybody know what it does?" He looked around at the students, a smile playing on his lips. "Anybody besides Miss Evans?" Embarrassed, Lily put her hand down and listened as Skye timidly answered the question. "Good, very good, Miss Delaney. This is a dangerous potion, and like Felix Felicis, can be disastrous if you brew it wrong. And this one…"

When Slughorn was done telling them about all the potions, he sent them all back to their tables and set them to brewing the Headache Cure for the prize of a Potions homework pass. Lily eagerly followed Sev until she saw that he had sat down at a full table. Disappointed, she stiffly sat down with Thorn, Regall, and Skye and retrieved her cauldron. Opening her Potions book, Lily got out her ingredients and began to make her potion.

After adding the valerian root and a couple drops of hallbrand essence, Lily finally looked up from her potion. Regall was doing fairly well, and even though her potion was a bit on the blue side instead of the deep purple it was supposed to be, they still had couple minutes left to adjust it. Skye was also doing very well, about as good as Lily herself. Thorn, however, was clearly struggling. Her potion was lime green, and nothing Thorn did seemed to help. The potion was emitting a light fog, enveloping a frantic Thorn in its steamy vapor.

Taking pity on her, Lily quickly leaned over and added a single leaf of mortwig. Immediately, the potion turned a dark mauve. Thorn exhaled in relief.

"Thank you so much Lily! I'm _awful_at potions!" She said exhaustively, slumping forward with her head on the table. Lily nodded as Slughorn called, "Tiiiiiiime's UP!" Regall quickly added a last ingredient and then the room was still. Lily fidgeted nervously as Slughorn came nearer, inspecting everyone's potion and murmuring comments to the students under his breath. After what seemed like a lifetime, Slughorn reached their table.

He looked extremely pleased with Regall's potion, sniffed delicately at Thorn's potion and hurried away, and beamed and patted Skye on the shoulder. Lily was now shaking with anticipation as the professor came to her. Hopefully her potion would be good enough…

"Well, well, well!" Slughorn boomed. "It seems like we have a natural!" Lily could hardly believe her ears as Slughorn announced that she and Skye would both get a homework pass. Glancing across the room at Sev, she saw that he was beaming as much as Slughorn and clapping for her. Thorn was wrong. She had to be. Sev was her first and best friend, and on top of that was the one who had introduced her to this whole wizarding world.

She wouldn't let anybody bully Sev. And on top of that, she would never become one of those stuck-up Gryffindors like Thorn or Regall who scorned Slytherins just because of their house. It wasn't his fault that he had the qualities of Slytherin house any more than it was Remus Lupin's fault that he was friends with an arrogant toerag like James Potter.

The bell rang, bringing Lily back to earth. Putting her book back into her bag, she made sure that Thorn and Regall were on either side of her before she left the classroom. Potter never bothered her when they were around.

Skye had dropped back to walk with Black and his friends. Lily didn't understand how Skye was related to someone like Black. They were nothing alike! But right now, Skye's head was bent, listening and laughing at something that Remus was whispering. The other guys laughed, too, except for Potter. Lily guessed that they were talking about the little incident before Potions and glanced at Potter, wondering if he felt embarrassed.

Suddenly, his head lifted and his eyes met hers. Lily noticed unhelpfully that they were a rather nice shade of hazel, before he smiled and winked at her. Then she huffily turned her back and hurried off with Thorn and Regall, not seeing the look of hurt on his face.

Professor McGonagall's classroom had that annoying, strict don't-do-anything-wrong-or -you'll-regret-it air the moment Lily stepped in. First-year Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors were sitting down at the perfectly straight lines of desks stretching down the classroom, with the professor's big desk up at the front.

Professor McGonagall was not there yet, which was good because Potter and Black were trying to figure out a way to put a magical tack on the professor's seat without getting detention. Hurrying to the other side of the classroom, Lily sat down at an empty desk and glanced anxiously at the doorway, hoping that the professor would get here soon. She didn't like the look on Potter's face one bit.

The bell rang. Lily stared at the doorway. No McGonagall. A minute passed. No McGonagall. Two minutes. No McGonagall.

Again, Lily glanced at the boys. They were cackling silently as they maneuvered their magical thumbtack onto McGonagall's seat. As soon as the tack touched the cushion, an explosion seemed to take place in the room.

Plaster rained down on the students as Lily scrambled out from beneath her desk and peered towards Potter and Black.

Professor McGonagall was standing behind them, a grim look on her face. She was holding both boys by their shirt collars, making them look like puppies that had peed on the floor again.

"Do you honestly think that you could get away with something like that in my classroom?" she snapped at them. Hurriedly, they shook their heads. Lily was pleased to see that Potter looked much less cocky. Professor McGonagall released them and marched up to her desk, muttering 'Reparo' as she went, fixing the ceiling and desks with a wave of her wand. "Good," she said briskly, "Then I hope that you are not surprised that I am giving you each a detention." Ignoring their whines, she turned to the rest of the class.

"Anyway, welcome to Transfiguration. I hope that you have learned that there will be absolutely no trouble-making in my class." Everyone turned to look at Potter and Black. "Transfiguration is a complex art, which needs much concentration and will require your _utmost attention_." These last words were directed at one of the Hufflepuffs, whose name was Gilderoy Lockhart if Lily remembered correctly. Flashing a brilliant smile at the professor, he bowed and said,

"Forgive me for interrupting your class, Professor. I was just showing these lovely ladies how to properly use a Switching Sp-" Professor McGonagall waved her wand dismissively and levitated a stunned Lockhart back to his desk.

"That will do, thank you Mr. Lockhart. So, today we are indeed going to begin to administer Switching Spells. Miss Finnegan, please come up here and hand out these erasers. We will be practicing Switching them with your partner's erasers. You may practice in pairs. The incantation is _Quae Instigat_, now off you go!"

A comfortable buzz of conversation filled the room as people got into pairs. Thorn and Regall were again together, so Lily paired up with Skye. Once Scarlett Finnegan had passed out the erasers, Skye tried to switch her eraser with Lily's and ended up transplanting her finger. Lily gasped at the sight of the finger lying on the desktop. Skye had fallen off her chair. Lily could hear her moaning from the floor:

"Oh, the agony! ARGGGGGG-"

"Is everything alright over here?" Suddenly, Professor McGonagall stood behind them. Lily pointed wordlessly at the finger on the desk. Professor McGonagall narrowed her eyes. "Are you done messing around, Miss Delaney?" Skye popped out from under the desk.

"Never better," she chirped. Professor McGonagall gave her a frown and swept off. Sheepishly, Skye showed Lily her not-missing finger and retrieved the fake finger from the desktop with a mischievous smile. "Sirius gave it to me," she explained. Lily rolled her eyes and continued trying to do a Switching Spell.

Around the classroom, she heard other students having trouble even pronouncing the incantation properly. Rounds of "_Quae Instigat_" sounded like "_Qee Insta_". A second later, a little jet of white light was blown from the wand, often hitting something and breaking it. Or hitting the partner's face and making them bleed.

Thorn and Regall were pretty much the only people doing the right thing. Thorn was clearly a natural, and Regall wasn't too bad herself. Since they had accomplished merely Switching each other's erasers, they were now enjoying Switching their erasers with Lockhart's and a pretty Hufflepuff named Paige Weaver, whom Lockhart was flirting with. Lily could see that Thorn and Regall were enjoying themselves immensely, since Lockhart(who was a bit dim)had no idea where all his erasers were going.

After watching the most students fail miserably, Professor McGonagall was delighted to see that Lily and Skye had managed to do it: "Good job, 10 points to Gryffindor!" Lily sighed. Transfiguration did not come as naturally to her as Potions. She would have to work harder on it.

Sneaking a glance over to Potter and Remus, she was unsatisfied to see that Potter had successfully Switched his eraser and was making it zoom around and tap Pettigrew on the shoulder. Laughing, he looked up and caught Lily's gaze. For a split-second, Lily saw him as his friends did - laughing and cheerful and certainly not arrogant. This was James, not Potter. There was a difference. But then the next second, he became the same old annoying, self-centered, conceited Potter. Lily hurriedly looked away. She didn't want him to think that she had been staring at _him_. Thankfully, Professor McGonagall stood up behind her desk.

"Well, that was very good for a first try. We'll work on it for a little while. For your homework I want you all to practice the Switching Spell and write eight inches on what Miranda Goshawk has to say about the Switching Spell. Next week we'll start learning how to transfigure a match to a needle! Potter and Black, I want to see you after the bell rings to discuss your detention. The rest of you, pack up!"

There was a lot of chattering as everyone got their stuff together. When the bell rang, Lily ran to walk with Thorn and Regall to the Great Hall.

"What a great lesson!" enthused Thorn. "Finally, I get to practice my Transfiguration stuff on someone that isn't Jade!" Regall joined in and the two talked all the way to the Great Hall, with Lily occasionally adding in a "yeah" or a "mmm-hmm". Her mind wasn't actually on the conversation at all.

Instead it was on a certain someone who had unruly black hair and a smile to light up her world.

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**Yes I know some of you might be thinking, 'What? Lily isn't supposed to like James yet! She hates him right now'**

**Well, I know. That will be fixed, but I think James would probably have had a teeny crush on her. Like, super tiny. So, the next few chapters will show bits of her hating James and James fawning over her. (Wait isn't a fawn a baby deer? HOLY PRONGS BATMAN!) sorry, had too. **

**REVIEW PWEASE! I COMMAND IT! AND I HAVE COOKIES!**

**(See, this is when people really start to realize that I truly have the maturity of a 2 year old when I'm tired.)**

**- Hogwartsy9sy14sy! and the crazy friends. XD XD XD XD (I think I might've also had too much sugar. teehee!)**


	10. Bathrooms and Boys

**HI! IMMA BACK! WITH ANOTHER CHAPTER!**

**This one might be confusing, but don't worry! I'll answer any questions you might have!**

**Disclaimer: Do I really have to say it anymore? I don't own Harry Potter or anything recognizable**

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Chapter 10- Regall

You could smell the Great Hall miles away. As soon as Regall detected the pleasant aroma of just baked potatoes and fresh mac and cheese, she cut off her conversation with Thorn and hurried into the Great Hall.

Tonight it looked even more fantastic than Regall remembered from last night. The floating candles made it look bright and cheerful, and the clear starry sky shone down on the four tables. Students were pouring in from the main entrance, so Regall hurried to save the best seats at the Gryffindor table, stopping to say a hello to Grace and Julianne at the Ravenclaw table as she went by.

Regall tried to restrain herself until Thorn and Lily arrived, but the ravioli in front of her was deliberately torturing her, wafting its scent under her nose so that by the time Thorn and Lily arrived, the entire platter was empty except for a note from the house elves saying that they needed a little while to make some more.

Thorn just shook her head in exasperation, used to her friends behavior, sat down on Regall's left and helped herself to a drumstick. Lily looked as though she were a little concerned about how much ravioli Regall had managed to fit in her mouth, but she just shrugged and sat down on Regall's right and heaped some ears of corn onto her plate.

Regall spotted James down the table, watching, spellbound, as Lily laughed with Thorn. Regall caught his eye and made a kissy face. He narrowed his eyes at her and turned back to his friends.

"Hey Lily," Regall poked her friend on the shoulder. Lily turned with her eyebrow raised and Thorn looked curious.

"What?" Lily asked. Regall glanced towards James, who was now whispering with his friends, obviously planning another prank. He was stealing glances at the girls every so often.

"Seems like Potter over there has taken a liking to you!" she whispered. Lily looked like she'd been slapped.

"That's ridiculous!" she said coldly, turning back to her plate. Regall giggled.

"He definitely does. You mean you haven't noticed?" Lily looked sheepish.

"Well, I mean… maybe I have. A little." Thorn raised an eyebrow.

"A little? He's been staring at you ever since the Sorting! How can you not notice that? He's gonna make a move on you, I can tell." Lily sighed.

"Well, enough about who likes me. Anybody eyeing you?" Lily had grown a mischievous smirk as she said this. Thorn gagged.

"Eww. No. If anyone did, I'd slap them. But, I have been noticing someone staring at you Regall." She wiggled her eyebrows at her dark-haired friend, who jumped.

"Who?" she asked. Thorn made a tsk-ing noise.

"Tsk, I'm not gonna just _tell _you, that'd take all the fun away! But, If you must know, he's a Ravenclaw, and he's been eyeing you all day. Well, this has been fun, but now I must depart. I promised to help Marlene with her Transfiguration homework." Regall and Lily looked confused.

"Who's Marlene?" Lily asked.

"McKinnon? She's another first year. In Gryffindor, she just arrived today since she missed the train because of a family emergency. Gotta go!" She turned on her heel and did a series of front-walkovers out of the Great Hall.

"How'd she do that?" Lily turned to Regall, who was munching on the new ravioli that the house-elves had made.

"Well," Regall swallowed the ravioli. "She's kind of like an acrobat, she's been dancing since she was three, and has thaasophobia."

"What's thaasophobia?" Lily raised an eyebrow.

"Fear or intense hatred of boredom or sitting still for too long. Which I also have almost as bad as Thorn." Regall started doing an intense step movement under the table. "So, like we were saying before you purposely steered us off course, leading me to assume you're hiding something, I know James likes you, so the big question is, do you like him back?" Regall knew the fate of her and her friends depended on this. She didn't know how exactly, but it did! Don't question it. Lily narrowed her eyes.

"How could you possibly even think for a _second _that I would fancy the arrogant toad that is Potter? I thought you knew me better than that!" she exclaimed indignantly.

"Well, considering the fact that we only met, what? Yesterday? I can't know you that well. But, I see the signs, he likes you, and there could be a chance that you like him back. Just saying. Plus, you are sort of giving off that vibe as well. Like, when we emerged from Transfiguration, your face looked like a cherry." Regall stated, munching nonchalantly on a piece of ravioli and examining Lily for a reaction.

"Well how would you know for sure! You're jumping to conclusions!" said Lily, attacking her piece of steak vehemently. "Besides, he bullies Sev!" Regall raised an eyebrow.

"Whatever you say," she replied, and skipped away after Thorn.

****BREAKY**BREAKY**LINE**BREAKY**BREAKY**LINE****

Regall was climbing one of the moving staircases to Gryffindor Tower when she heard sobbing coming from a bathroom on the the fourth floor. Curious, she tiptoed over to the ladies' room. Regall had thought that she, Thorn, and Marlene would be the only ones to have left the Great Hall early - nearly everyone stayed for dessert. The only reason Regall hadn't was because she was so stuffed with ravioli.

Tiptoeing closer, she quietly pushed open the door. Pressing her back against the wall, Regall held her breath and listened.

"Shh, it's gonna be okay," a familiar voice was saying. Regall narrowed her eyes. Sirius Black. What in the name of Merlin was he doing in the girl's bathroom? She rounded the corner, mouth already open to ask him an embarrassing question when a second voice stopped her.

"No, it's not! It's n-never gonna b-be okay! He doesn't even recognize me anymore!" Regall stared at the crumpled form on the cold tiled floor, hands covering her face, a letter lying on the floor in front of her. Skye. Black was kneeling next to her, a comforting hand on her back.

"Yes it will," he said firmly. Regall was surprised to hear that, rather than confident and cocky like Black usually was, his hands were shaking and his face was pale. "It's gonna be okay, Skye. You just have to give him time. It's not something easy to get over." Skye stood up and walked over to the sink, leaning both her hands against it and staring into it, like if she stared hard enough it would burn a hole through the bottom. Her golden-brown hair screened her face from view.

"It's not fair," Skye whispered to the sink, soft enough so only Regall could hear. A teardrop fell into the sink, disappearing down the drain. Suddenly, Skye glanced up and caught sight of Regall in the mirror. Regall opened her mouth again, ready to explain, but Skye was already advancing on her with her wand out. Black jumped up with a yell, drawing his wand, too. Regall pulled out her wand, though her mind was blank. _Who had they been talking about? What wasn't going to be okay?_

"Stop it!" Regall said to them. "I won't tell anyone, I promise!" Skye was so close now that Regall could see the tears and sadness in her blue eyes. And anger. Lots of anger.

"Do you think that for one minute I would believe that?" Skye snarled. Her wand jabbed Regall in the chest. Something inside Regall snapped. She had _tried_ to be nice. But if Skye couldn't accept that, then that was too bad for Skye.

"Well, you should believe it!" retorted Regall. "I never _ever_ break my promises!" Skye lowered her wand, and all the anger seemed to vanish. Now she looked like a person in a sea of strangers. Confused and tired. Whatever. It was too late.

"I wasn't trying to- I mean -" Skye's voice broke and, head down, she ran out of the bathroom.

"Wait, Skye!" Black shouted, but she was already gone. Instead he rounded on Regall. "You just had to ruin it, didn't you!" He yelled at her. "She was doing really well and you just _had_ to come in and-"

"Hey, it wasn't my fault that you two were in this bathroom!" interrupted Regall. Black just gave her a scathing look, snatched the letter from the floor, and swept out of the bathroom.

**BBBBRRRRRREEEEEEAAAAAKKKKKKKKYYYYY***LLLLLIIIIIINN NNNEEEEEE**

"Hey, Regall," greeted Thorn, hastily clearing textbooks and parchment off the armchair next to her so her friend could sit down. "This is Marlene." Thorn indicated a bubbly blonde girl, who smiled at Regall and shook her hand. "Regall, Marlene. Marlene, Regall. Anyway, Marlene, Miranda Goshawk says in Chapter 2 that Switching Spells…" Regall listened absentmindedly to Thorn and Marlene's chatter. That whole incident in the bathroom had been really weird. What had really happened in there? Regall wished that she could tell Thorn, but knew that she would automatically prove Skye right if she did.

Plus, what Regall had said was true: she had never, ever broke her promises. Not once in her life.

"Regall? Ree-gallll!" Thorn was waving a hand in front of her face. Regall blinked and sat up. "You looked like you were a little zoned out there for a minute." Quickly, Regall hitched a smile on her face.

"Yeah, a little bit."

"Are you gonna do homework with me and Marlene?" Regall nodded and searched for her school bag, pulling out a fresh piece of parchment, ink, a quill, and her textbooks.

By the time they finished all their homework, it was nine thirty. Regall, Thorn, and Marlene sleepily climbed the steep spiral staircase to their dorm.

"I call getting the bathroom first!" shouted Thorn, running to their tiny bathroom and locking the door. Marlene went over to her bed, pulling out a pair of pajamas while Regall glanced over at Skye's bed. It was empty. Well, it wasn't as though she had expected Skye to be there.

"Who sleeps there?" Marlene asked Regall. Regall snapped back into reality, facing Marlene.

"Oh, a girl named Skye Delaney. I have no idea where she is now. I'm starting to get a bit worried." Regall looked around the room.

"I bet she's fine!" a muffled yell came from the bathroom. Regall nodded, a little assured by Thorn's voice.

"Yeah. Yeah, I hope so." Regall whispered. Thorn came out of the bathroom, stretching while wearing her bright orange pjs. Regall slipped into the bathroom and changed.

When she came out, Thorn was already in bed, reading a book on Ancient Wizarding History, biting her lip like she was trying to understand something. Marlene shuffled past Regall and walked into the open bathroom, shutting the door behind her.

Regall got under the covers of her bed and thought for a minute. If Skye was that upset when she walked in on her, then it must be really private. But, why did Sirius know about it? Regall knew they were cousins, so that could be a reasonable explanation.

Not knowing why Skye was so upset was eating Regall up inside. She yawned, still running over the scene from earlier in her head, searching for clues. She finally stopped when the darkness of sleep engulfed her.

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**Woot! Ten Chapters! I know this one is kind of rushed, but I did it when I was falling asleep pretty much. So, sorry!**

**See you all soon!**

**- Hogwarts914**


	11. Dreams and DADA

**Yay! I'm back after a short hiatus! I had terrible computer problems! sorry!**

**Disclaimer: I'm running out of creative ways to say this, but I don't own Harry Potter or any recognizable things in the story.**

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Chapter 11- Lily

The next few days were quite pleasant for Lily. Regular classes, homework, friends acting like maniacs, homework, letters to and from home, homework, homework, and more homework. Lily swore that the teachers were trying to drown them. She didn't mind as much as Thorn (who was on the verge of a strike) did, but it did get overwhelming.

One thing she noticed was that Skye has been acting rather odd lately. She seemed more withdrawn and uptight, and was constantly around Sirius and sometimes Jade. Lily didn't want to pry, of course. It wasn't her duty to know everything about everyone, but she couldn't help feeling curious and the tiniest bit suspicious. She shoved it aside though. She wasn't going to poke around in Skye's business.

Lily had seen the Slytherin prefect, whose name they had learned was Lucius Malfoy a couple of times, in the Great Hall and around Hogwarts. While he hadn't made any trouble for them, when he had seen Lily and her friends, Malfoy had sneered and smirked at them. This gave Lily an uneasy feeling, like he was plotting something.

Sev and Potter were officially enemies now, which meant that Lily officially hated Potter. Apparently Potter, Black, Remus, and Pettigrew had pranked him into thinking he had a detention and locked poor Sev in McGonagall's office. Lily couldn't believe that they would be so cruel, especially Remus. When Professor McGonagall found Sev in her office in the morning, she gave him an actual detention this time! Lily didn't know what to think - she had always liked McGonagall - but thankfully Sev had the sense to tell her the real story, and she gave Potter, Black, and Pettigrew a detention, too. Since Remus had a good track record, McGonagall let him off this once.

Another thing that Lily noticed was that Thorn and Regall were right (unfortunately) about Potter. He had finally worked up the courage to ask her out. Ten times. Lily had felt bad about when she had told him "no" the first time, not because she really secretly liked him, but because he actually seemed genuinely hurt. But she needn't have worried. Because right after lunch the same day, he asked her out again. And again. And again. Holy Circe, it was only the second day!

_Nothing can damage James Potter's ego,_ thought Lily grimly as she sprinted towards Defense Against the Dark Arts. _It's so huge that everything I say just bounces off._

Professor Semira, the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, was an interesting teacher. Dark and mysterious, she taught each lesson with grace. All the students were mesmerized by her.

Like Professor McGonagall, Professor Semira had the ability of keeping a class quiet without effort. As soon as you stepped inside her classroom, you immediately quieted and hurriedly took your seat. The professor's wrath was terrible to behold. One day, on their first DADA lesson, Jade (the Gryffindors had DADA with the Ravenclaws) came in late and Professor Semira had turned her into a worm before Jade could blink. It had been rather entertaining, it's true, but the Professor had switched her back quickly, told her to take her seat, and continued with the lesson.

Jade had taken a walk of shame back to her seat, and testing each limb to make sure it was still there. Lily had almost felt bad for her. But then, Jade had caught sight of Lily, stuck her nose up in the air, and muttered, "Mudblood". Lily had to hold Thorn and Regall back from attacking Jade.

"She-called-you-MUDBLOOD!" Thorn hissed through clenched teeth.

"Well, no need to kill her…"Lily had pointed out. Regall gave her a look that said "You don't know what it means, do you?".

"Is everything alright over here?" said a voice softly in Lily's ear. Professor Semira had somehow appeared behind the three without them noticing. Thorn nodded shakily and Professor Semira silently appeared at the front of the room again. It seemed like she was a shadow herself. She was dressed in all black and had this silky smooth voice with the hint of an accent that, combined with her coffee-colored skin, made Lily think of faraway and exotic places.

Professor Semira's voice called Lily's mind back.

"So, this is your second lesson in Defense Against the Dark Arts," she was saying. "In our first lesson, you learned about famous curses and spells. Today, we will start learning how to do some of these spells I've told you about. A simple one to start off with would be the Wand-Lighting Charm. It might take a while for you to get it right- it should emit white light. Practice it at your desks for now; the incantation is _Lumos_-" Professor Semira's voice was interrupted by another.

"_Lumos!_" shouted Regall, taking no notice of the stares around her. Immediately, a pearly white light shone, lighting up the classroom. Instead of scolding Regall or something, the professor's face lit up like Regall's wand.

"Excellent job, Ms. Ashe! You one of the first I've taught to get a spell on your first try! Take ten points for Gryffindor!" Not noticing the envious glares, Regall muttered _Nox _and the light extinguished.

"Show-off!" muttered Lily, pulling out her wand and getting ready. Cries of _LUMOS _filled the air, and only four wands lit up- Regall's, Jade', Thorn's, and Remus's. Regall's was one of the two that brightest, and Lily didn't need to ask to know that Regall was a natural at Defense Against the Dark Arts. Thorn seemed okay, though it didn't look like she was really comfortable, and Jade was pretty good. The fourth light was Remus Lupin's, and his light was burning bright, shining with a steady glow. Lily had to admit that she was surprised; Remus didn't look as though he'd be able to survive a day in the Forbidden Forest. Ashamed, Lily mentally hit herself for judging him by his looks and not what was on the inside.

Lily ignored them and focused hard on her own wand.

"_Lumos! Lumos! Lumos! Lum_-" Suddenly all her concentration was broken by a voice.

"Try _lightening_ up a little, Evans," chuckled the voice from behind her. Lily didn't need to turn around to know whose voice it was.

"Shut up, Potter," she growled and focused on her wand again, this time saying the incantation a little more relaxed. The wand point lit up and began to glow dimly. Grudgingly, Lily thanked Potter without turning around and waited for Professor Semira's next instructions. When the professor had made sure that everyone could produce the light, she addressed the class again.

"Good job, everyone. Some of you need a little work" -Professor Semira's eyes lingered on Peter Pettigrew-"but overall I think that we can move on. Next we will do the Verdimillious Charm. This is trickier; if done properly it will produce a torrent of green may practice with a partner."

Everybody split up into pairs, and Regall and Jade (which had never happened before) ended up together, just as Thorn and Skye sat down next to each other. Grace sat with Marlene, and Lily sat with a girl named Julianne Fane, who was in Ravenclaw. Her brother Alex was also a first year Ravenclaw, and he was hanging out with all the boys, including James, Sirius, Remus and Peter.

Lily gestured for Julianne to try first, so the Ravenclaw girl concentrated hard, murmuring the incantation, her dark hair swinging in front of her face like a curtain. When Julianne had successfully made sparks shoot from her wand, Lily tried, screwing up her eyes and focusing until she, too, had made green sparks. Pleased with herself, Lily relaxed now, chatting with Julianne, who was very interested in hearing about Muggles and their world. In return, Lily listened eagerly and somewhat enviously to Julianne's tales about all the Wizarding places she had been with her family: apparently she had even been to Salem, in America!

Therefore, Lily was disappointed when Professor Semira called a halt to the lesson, congratulated them all, and told them to pack up. When the bell rang, Lily waved goodbye to Julianne and set off with Thorn and Regall for History of Magic.

Thorn and Remus were pretty much the only first year Gryffindors that could stand Professor Binns. He was the only professor that was a ghost. Apparently, even after he died, his ghost kept doing the daily routine. Remus was patient and worked hard, and Thorn had a natural ability for History. The rest of them just slept, doodled, did other homework, read, or drooled on their desks (that was mainly Pettigrew) while Thorn and Remus took notes and Binns droned on. In short, History of Magic was a great place to catch up on some well-deserved rest, and since Lily hadn't been getting much sleep far away from home, she put her head on her desk as soon as Binns started his lecture.

_She was running through the halls of Hogwarts, being chased by Potter. Desperate, she dashed into McGonagall's classroom and locked the door. When she turned around, Sev was in there doing his detention, but instead of writing lines he was feeding the professor's pet hippos. Skye was helping him. McGonagall had her feet up on the desk and was getting a makeover from Marlene, Thorn, and Regall. When the professor lifted the cucumbers from her eyes, Dream-Lily realized with a thrill of horror that they were Potter's hazel irises. Suddenly the floor collapsed beneath her as Potter knocked the door down and she fell into Slughorn's dungeon. Potter landed beside her, knelt on one knee, and pulled out a Dr. Filibuster firework._

"_Lily Evans," he breathed, "Will you marry me?" Dream-Lily pushed him into a cauldron of Felix Felicis. Professor Slughorn emerged from his office and asked if he could be a bridesmaid, then changed into Black, who yelled at Potter in the cauldron that he was stupid, he should have asked Levans Elly to marry him instead. Petunia clambered out of the cauldron instead of Potter and screeched at Dream-Lily that it was all her fault, then shoved her sister through Jade, who was a ghost..._

"Lily! Lily, wake up!" Hastily, Lily sat up, blinking blearily. The bell must have just rung, since everyone else was packing up, except for Regall, who was peering, concerned, down at her. "You alright, Lily?" Lily nodded and smiled weakly up at her friend before reaching for her bag.

******The two of them joined the other Gryffindor girls to walk down to the Quidditch Pitch for Flying Lessons. Lily tuned out their talking and turned her thoughts to her dream instead. What on earth could it have possibly meant?**

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**YAY! Major update! Almost 8 chapters should be coming out today and tomorrow. A lot of work was done while my computer was dead.**

**See ya! R&R!**

**-Hogwarts914**


	12. Fun and Flying

**Disclaimer: The usual, I own nothing. No recognizable things including Harry Potter belong to me.**

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Chapter 12- Thorn

The first-year Gryffindors emerged onto the sunny grounds and walked over to the Quidditch Pitch. Thorn was excited for their very first Flying Lesson; now was the time to show off her skills.

They quickly hurried over to where Madam Hooch was waiting with the first-year Slytherins. Lily's face lit up, and Thorn followed her gaze to Snape. Thorn quickly glanced at James and Sirius, who were whispering together, having noticed Snape too. Pettigrew was listening eagerly, but Lupin wasn't looking so approving.

As soon as they neared Madam Hooch, she barked at them to stand next to one of the rows of brooms that were lying on the ground without saying so much as hello. Thorn obediently stood next to a wooden broom with twigs sticking out all over the place.

"Now," ordered Madam Hooch, "Stick your hand over your broom and say "UP!" Choruses of "UP!" followed her words. It took Thorn, Regall, and Skye two tries to get their brooms in their hand. Skye blamed it on the old school brooms, which apparently always flew to the left and vibrated if you went too high.

"I bet it would've only taken us one try if we had _our _brooms instead of these," whispered Regall in Thorn's ear. Thorn agreed.

When everyone had summoned their broom, Madam Hooch went up and down the rows, correcting their grip. Thorn was pleased when Hooch told her that her grip was one of the best she'd seen in years. Finally, everyone was ready. Madam Hooch faced them.

"On the count of three, you may kick off the ground, hover, then come straight back down. Ready? One...two...three!" Thorn kicked off with the rest of the first years. It was so easy she could've done it in her sleep. But not so easy, apparently, for everyone.

Snape was struggling to just stay on his broom, let alone off the ground. Thorn could see him wiggling around, trying to find a comfy spot on his broom when - SMACK. Snape fell off his broom and crashed onto the ground. Even though it was only a few feet, he made a big show of grimacing and dusting himself off. When Madam Hooch gave the rest of them the signal to come back down, Lily hurried over to him to ask if he was alright. Thorn could see James's stony face out of the corner of her eye and automatically knew there would be trouble.

"All right, move out of the way!" Madam Hooch shoved Lily away, and then checked Snape. "You're fine, stand up!" She then faced the whole class. "That was a good try. Obviously, flying comes more naturally to certain people." Her eyes lingered on Thorn, Regall, Skye, and, to Lily's displeasure, James. "Now, everyone back in their place!", she barked. Thorn hurried to her spot.

"Next," Hooch kept an eye on Potter, who was looking smug, as he eyed Snape. "I want you all to kick off from the ground again, this time going a little higher." Once they were back down, she pulled out a big plastic hoop.

"It's a Hula-Hoop!" Lily whispered. Thorn was confused.

"A Hula what? Isn't that something they do in Hawaii?" Lily shook her head and put a finger to her lips.

"I have a whole bunch of these enchanted hoops," Madam Hooch was saying. "I'll set one up for each pair and you can practice flying through them. Since these are enchanted, each time you successfully fly through, they will shrink, making it harder the next time." Regall and Skye were together this time, so Thorn was with Marlene because Lily wanted to be with Snape.

Once Madam Hooch had levitated their hoop, Thorn kicked off and easily flew through it, even doing a Sloth Grip Roll on the way. Marlene went after, flying through it not as precisely as Thorn. Even after the hoop had shrunk, it was still easy for Thorn. When Madam Hooch came over to evaluate them, she praised Thorn and told Marlene that she should get off the ground more.

Since they were done, Thorn and Marlene just hovered on their brooms, chatting and criticizing people, which turned out to be really fun.

Regall, of course, was superb, even doing loop-de-loops in and out of the hoop. Skye was excellent as well, and from what Thorn could see they were having a friendly competition of who could do the most somersaults through the hoop in midair. Lily and Snape weren't actually flying, not really - to Thorn it looked like they were talking heatedly about something, arguing maybe. But when Madam Hooch swept over, they quickly got back to work again. Snape was terrible at flying, and he missed the hoop several times, even though it was still quite big. Lily was better than Snape - Thorn would die of embarrassment if her friend wasn't - but her flying abilities were more like Marlene than the other Gryffindor girls.

James and Peter were three hoops over. James was outstanding, and as he had finished flying through his shrinking hoop as well, he was now doing complicated tricks on his broom to Peter's delight. Black and Remus were next to them. Both were fairly good, though not quite up to James's standard.

Finally, everyone had finished and Madam Hooch granted them a marvelous ten minutes of free time on their brooms. She even conjured some inflatable balls to use for Quidditch. James zoomed toward them.

"I call being Chaser!" he shrieked, scooping up one of the inflatable balls for a Quaffle. Thorn snickered and flew after him, stealing the Quaffle and throwing it to Skye. Since it was a small game, they decided to have no Seeker or Beaters.

Remus was established as Keeper for the Gryffindor team, and Marlene was reluctantly Keeper for the Gryffindor girls. Sirius, James, Peter, Thorn, Regall, and Skye were all Chasers. Sometimes the Slytherin's own game interfered with the Gryffindors, mostly involving snide taunts and insults, but other than that Thorn was as happy as could be. Even Skye wasn't being as moody as she normally was these days, and Thorn even caught her laughing once.

"Alright, since we don't have Seekers! First to 120 wins!" James shouted, his voice carrying through the wind.

Snape and Lily were walking around the pitch, talking animatedly. Thorn stopped and squinted down at them. Sev seemed to be mad at Lily, who seemed to be defending herself. Maybe she was finally seeing that Slytherins weren't as good as she had thought. Suddenly, a Quaffle hit her in the head. Thorn whipped around to see Regall hovering there, a mischievous smile on her face.

"Are you making googly eyes at Snivellus?" she teased. Thorn threw the Quaffle at Regall, who ducked, so the Quaffle soared straight into Sirius's arms. With a cackle, he aimed and threw the ball straight over Marlene's shoulder and into the goal.

"Score!" he crowed, doing a victory lap and slapping James a high five. Soon, though, Skye scored for the girl's, then Thorn scored, then James scored, then Regall scored, then James again, so that when the bell rang it was a tie. A little sweaty and out of breath, Thorn handed her broom quickly back to Madam Hooch, grabbed her bookbag, and ran with the girls to walk to lunch. She noticed that Lily was dragging behind. Dropping back to walk with her, Thorn asked her softly,

"Are you okay?" Lily looked away. Thorn just walked with her quietly for awhile.

"Sev h-hates me," Lily suddenly burst out. "He accused m-me of hanging out with you g-guys instead of him, and he th-thinks that I don't like him anymore!" Thorn put an arm around Lily's shaking shoulders.

"You know, Lily," said Thorn after a bit. "It isn't really your fault. After all, you were put in Gryffindor with us, and he's in Slytherin, so it's not your fault that you don't hang out with him because, well, you can't. You only have two classes together!" Lily nodded, calming down as they entered the Great Hall.

"Th-thanks, Thorn," she stammered, giving a watery smile, "I think I'll go tell him that." Lily hurried into the Great Hall. Thorn watched her friend go, thinking that this whole friends-with-Snape thing was a whole lot more trouble than it was worth.

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**I just want to say, My friends and I have noticed how we seem to be straying from Lily and focusing on our OCs more than we should. So, we are sorry! We'll try to fix that! In the mean time, R&R!**

**-Hogwarts914!**


	13. Problems and Pringle

**Disclaimer: Still don't own anything.**

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Chapter 13- Lily

September swept by in a whirl of crazy friends and homework, and the next thing Lily knew Halloween was two weeks away. She was eagerly anticipating her first holiday at Hogwarts, which also meant her first holiday away from Petunia. Compared to the thick, fat letters that her parents had been sending, wanting to know every single detail of her life, Tuney hadn't been saying much in the brief letters that Lily had gotten from her,. Fearing that they were becoming even more distant, Lily wrote heaps of parchment back to Tuney, but her sister seemed to take this as a sign that Lily was really a freak. A smile played on Lily's lips as she remembered Sev's reaction when she told him about her sister's coldness.

Sev had accepted her explanation about why she hung out with the Gryffindors instead of him more often, though he had warned her to stay away from Potter. "I don't want him corrupting you," he had insisted. Lily had rolled her eyes, but listened nonetheless. Sometimes she wished Sev wasn't so protective…

She sighed and rolled over in bed. No more weird dreams, thank goodness. It was a Saturday morning, pinkish light slanting through the windows from the sunrise. Glancing at her clock, Lily saw that it was six thirty. Much too early for anyone in her dorm to be up. Sitting up and pulling back the hangings around her bed, Lily pulled out a set of robes from her trunk. When she reached for her hairbrush, Lily's gaze fell on a framed photo on her nightstand.

A tall man with a mane of brown hair was grinning up out of the photo, one arm slung around the waist of a cheerful-looking pretty woman with wavy strawberry-blonde hair. The woman's hand rested on the shoulder of a nine-year-old Petunia, who had a rare smile on her face. On the man's shoulders riding piggyback was a young Lily, grinning broadly to reveal a gap where one of her front teeth should have been. In the background was Stirling Castle, its grey towers rising in a parody of Hogwarts.

Lily smiled ruefully at her younger self. She remembered the visit to Stirling Castle as well as the then six-year-old Lily. Romping through the stone hallways, pretending to make hot cross buns in the mock bakery with Petunia, sitting on the thrones in the Throne Room, peeking through an arrow slit on the cannon deck. If only Tuney and her were as close now as they had been at that age. Suddenly, Lily was seized with another desire to make sure she and her sister didn't drift apart.

Throwing on the set of robes, Lily grabbed some spare parchment and a quill and quietly snuck into the common room. Settling into one of the armchairs, Lily dipped her quill into some ink and began to write on the parchment.

A while later, when the sun started to stream into the room and there were rustlings and creaks from people waking upstairs, Lily was finally done. She smoothed the parchment out and reread the letter:

_Dear Tuney,_

_It's my first holiday without you, and I wanted to make it as joyful as ever so I wouldn't miss you, Mum, and Dad. What are you going dressed up as? I can't do much without Mum, but I can take my bed sheets and be a ghost! I know, I know, it's the stupidest one in the book. Oh well. What are you going to be? I bet it's going to be clever as always. Here at my school, we dress up and go around to the other dormitories and sometimes even the professor's offices. Even Professor Du- our headmaster gives out candy during Halloween! According to my one of my roommate's sister, there are jack-o'-lanterns, bats and ghosts and plenty more decorations. I can't wait! _

_Wish you were here,_

_Lily_

Good enough. Rolling up the letter in her hand, Lily maneuvered her way out of the common room and was passing the entrance to the boy's dormitories when a body fell right in front of her. Lily jumped backward in shock. Not noticing her, the person clambered to its feet and shook a fist at the staircase to the boy's dorms.

"I swear Sirius, one of these days I'm going to kill you!" Another boy bounded down the staircase, his face split in a wide grin.

"Nah, you love me too much, Jamesy. Also I take the blame for stealing chocolate from Remus's secret stash when it's actually you." A sandy-haired boy poked his head out from around the corner of the staircase.

"Hah!" he said triumphantly, pointing at James. "I knew it was you! Oh, good morning Lily! Sorry about these two idiots."

"It's alright, Remus," Lily grimaced. Potter whirled on his heel, finally noticing Lily.

"Hey there, Evans," he grinned, nonchalantly leaning against the doorframe. He would've succeeded in looking suave and casual if he hadn't still been wearing pajamas.

"Hey yourself," said Lily coolly. "You know you're still in your PJs, right?" As Potter looked down in shock, his hand slipped on the doorframe and he fell over for the second time that morning. Lily snorted and stepped over him, heading towards the portrait hole.

"Smooth, mate," she heard Black say as she entered the hallway. "Now she'll definitely want to go out with you." Lily rolled her eyes as she set course for the Owlery.

*****BREAK****LINES****ARE****SUPER****EPIC*****

"Where were you this morning?" Thorn demanded as Lily slid into a seat next to her at the Gryffindor table for breakfast. "You gave us a heart attack when we woke up and your bed was empty!" Lily appraised Regall, Skye, and Marlene, who were all happily arguing about which was better: butter, pancakes, or bacon.

"They seem fine to me," Lily turned back to Thorn, who grunted and attacked her steak instead. "Thank you for your concern, though." Thorn promptly threw a piece of steak at Lily's head.

"Excellent, are we starting a food fight?" said a voice brightly from behind them. Lily glanced over her shoulder to see Sirius Black standing there with Peter Pettigrew, both looking happy at the prospect of food. Not wanting to disappoint them, Lily threw a scrambled egg at them. Black pumped his fist.

"Awesome!" He took off down the table, yelling, "Jamesy, Remus, food fight! Recruits needed!" Thorn and Lily exchanged a glance of apprehension.

"Uh-oh," said Lily, standing up. She could see down to the boy's end of the table. Black seemed to be enthusiastically talking to Potter, waving his hands emphatically. Pettigrew stood next to him, nodding excitedly. Potter's face slowly brightened as he listened to Black, then grabbed a string of sausages from a nearby plate and turned to Remus, who sighed and followed suit.

"Regall! Skye! Marlene! Backup!" barked Thorn, standing up beside Lily and arming herself with a platter of waffles. The other three immediately quieted and, evaluating the situation, grabbed nearby plates.

Potter, Black, Remus, and Pettigrew were sauntering purposefully down the aisle between the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor table, all carrying plates of breakfast foods. They stopped a couple of feet away from the Gryffindor girls and just stood there, sizing them up. Suddenly, Black darted forward, uttering a battle cry: "FOR THE BACON!" and launching his plate of eggs at Marlene, who ducked and let it splatter on the back of Wynter's head. Skye's sister whipped around, eyes narrowed and hand automatically reaching for a plate.

"Ooh, you've got it coming, Black," she hissed, flinging some cornflakes into his face. Then, madness broke loose. Lily ducked and wove among the bodies and food, not knowing who was on her side and no longer caring.

Regall was shoving strawberry jam down Pettigrew's shirt, Thorn was mashing soggy toast in Remus's face, Skye was busy rubbing blueberry muffins into Potter's hair, and Marlene and Wynter were chasing Black with butter knives. Soon, pretty much everyone at the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor tables had joined in, flinging food at one another and generally having the time of their lives. Lily thought she even saw some Ravenclaws like Jade and Grace tackling Frank Longbottom and the final Gryffindor first-year boy Hunter and Julianne with her brother Alex having an epic pancake showdown on top of the Gryffindor table. Laughing at Alex's hair and face dripping with syrup, Lily snatched a platter of bagels and tramped through the crowd, throwing them at anyone who stepped in her way.

All of a sudden, Lily found herself face to face with Potter, a streak of raspberry jam down the side of his face.

"Hiding from Skye," he smirked, gesturing behind him. "Got really offended for some reason when I dunked her in orange juice." Lily laughed, then covered her mouth, horrified. Had she actually just laughed at something James Potter had said? No wonder he looked so pleased. To cover up for her mistake, she smashed the platter of bagels straight into his face and marched onward, looking for new victims.

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF MERLIN IS THIS?!" Professor McGonagall rushed into the Great Hall, robes billowing behind her and a very terrifying look on her face. Immediately, everyone froze. A pancake silently drooped from Regall's hand and fell dismally onto the floor. Professor McGonagall bustled furiously up to the scene of crime.

"WELL?" she bellowed. Lily thought that steam would start coming out of her ears. "EXPLAIN YOURSELVES!" A lot of people started talking at once. Professor McGonagall held up her hands. "It doesn't matter who started it. What matters is that you all took part in this outrageous activity! You will all clean up this mess _without magic_ before lunch today or I will assign you an additional detention! Mr. Pringle," she turned, addressing the hunched over man Lily had seen during the Welcoming Feast and who she remembered was the caretaker. "Would you please oversee their cleaning? I want it exactly as it was before they started." She waved her wand to conjure some buckets of soapy water and a hundred sponges, then giving a last frown over her shoulder, swept out of the hall.

"Some way to spend a Saturday morning," grumbled Skye in Lily's ear as they picked up sponges. Lily shrugged.

"At least it was worth it," she pointed out. "That food fight was amazing! Did you see Jade when Pettigrew threw a Danish at her? She just opened her mouth and caught it!" Skye's eyes lit up and they continued discussing the topic until a shadow fell over them. Glancing guiltily up, they saw it was Apollyon Pringle, the caretaker.

"We wouldn't be slacking off now, would we?" he said in this raspy grating voice. His yellow eyes bulged as he glared at them. Skye and Lily looked at him.

"Yes, we would," said Skye bluntly. Pringle's bushy eyebrows furrowed, but soon he got over it.

"Well, then," he hissed in what was supposed to be a dangerous voice, "I guess you won't mind if I take away FIFTEEN POINTS FROM GRYFFINDOR?!" Skye made a big show of being alarmed and patted his shoulder.

"Why, there's no need to get all worked up my old chap - eww," Skye wiped her hand on Lily's sleeve, since Pringle's coat had been absolutely disgusting. Lily immediately wiped her sleeve on the closest person, who turned out to be a very revolted Black.

"AAARRGGHHH! IT'S THE PRINGLE TOUCH!" he hollered, scampering towards Pettigrew. Pringle chased after them, so the two took advantage of the distraction and hurried over to Thorn and Regall, who were chatting away while scrubbing the syrup-stained tabletop. Regall and Thorn didn't seem to mind working at cleaning. They were absentmindedly scrubbing at a spot that Remus had already cleaned, and were missing all the syrupy parts. Pringle seemed to notice this too.

"Do you have EYES?" he demanded Regall. Regall stared up at him with an amused expression, which in Lily's eyes wasn't amusing at all.

"Yes unfortunately, as I can see your warty old face staring down at me," Regall snorted, and added in a stage whisper."_Absolutely hideous."_

This really set Pringle off.

"TWENTY POINTS FROM GRYFFINDOR AND A DETENTION FOR YOU ASHE, AND IF I SEE ANY MORE HORSING AROUND IT WILL BE ANOTHER DETENTION FOR BOTH YOU _AND_ YOUR UGLY FRIEND!" he shrieked in a high pitched voice , not at all in the normal male range and gesturing to Thorn who was laughing her head off.

Regall turned to Thorn. "Wow, I didn't think you were _that _ugly. Actually now that I think about it, I was starting to deem you nice looking- but apparently not."

Potter and his gang were also snickering in delight.

"Nice way to earn a detention, dude," remarked Potter. Pringle spun around and advanced on him.

"I suppose you think it's funny that your little friend here lost twenty points from your house? Would you like to do the same thing?" Potter peered into Pringle's face with a disgusted expression and did not reply for a while. Evidently, Pringle was a little nervous from this weird behavior, and instead prodded Potter in the gut with a lethal looking whip he called "Lola" and carried everywhere.

"Oh, sorry," said Potter brightly. "I was just a little disoriented by your face. Ashe was right - it's truly hideous. I recommend an exfoliant."

"Some moisturizer wouldn't go amiss either," called Jade from across the room.

"Actually, do us all a favor and just get some plastic surgery," groaned Black, shielding Pringle's face with his hand as if he couldn't stand it for much longer.

"THAT'S IT! DETENTION, ALL FOUR OF YOU! THE GIRL OVER THERE, AS WELL," Pringle pointed at Jade. "AND AN EXTRA DETENTION FOR YOU MR. I'M-SO-GREAT POTTER!" Remus's jaw dropped.

"But sir- I didn't say any-" Remus began, but he was cut off by Pringle pointing Lola threateningly at him.

"ONE MORE WORD AND YOU WILL GET AN EXTRA DETENTION LUPIN!" roared the malicious caretaker. This effectively (and not to mention miraculously) silenced them. Lily could hardly believe that Remus had gotten a detention even though he didn't say anything. Remus apparently thought so, too, for although he didn't say anything else, his lips were tightly pressed together and he glared up at the caretaker with clenched fists. Pringle had finally gotten the effect he wanted. His mashed up face was gleeful as he hobbled purposefully away from them towards a little riot between some Hufflepuffs across the hall. Then he looked back over his shoulder.

"I suppose I forgot to mention that there will be fifty points taken from Gryffindor in total as well?"

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**Another done!**

**I really have nothing to say, so R&R!**

**-Hogwarts914**


	14. Pranks and Procrastination

**Major Upload! Sorry if this is a pain for some of you! But loads of Chapters will be up today!**

**Disclaimer: I'm seriously wondering if I only have to say that I don't own Harry Potter or anything recognizable every time or if I'm just wasting space...**

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Chapter 14- Skye

Skye stretched out on the warm grass lazily. It was a late Saturday morning, nearly two weeks after the food fight. Skye had to admit that while the food fight itself had been fun, the aftermath had not been. McGonagall had seemed grimly satisfied, though she had heaped loads of homework on them during the last couple of weeks as if determined to give them something to do. A load of it was waiting for Skye right now up in her dorm, but she had always been a procrastinator as well as apparently Thorn. Lily and Regall weren't but that if they'd rather work than have fun that was fine by Skye.

Skye wanted there to be another moment like the food fight, when she forgot all about her family issues with her dad and just had fun fun fun, no worries. Unfortunately, there wasn't really anything else to take her mind off things, and Skye didn't count homework. Oh yeah, and Halloween was tonight! Skye was going as a vampire; she was going to wear her black cloak with the collar turned up, and use a Paling Charm that Professor Flitwick had taught them and Orthodontic Spell to make her face whiter and her teeth pointier. It was gonna be _awesome_.

Turning her head to the side, Skye peered at the Transfiguration essay Lily was scribbling away. She had somehow convinced Lily and Thorn to come down with her to the grounds, saying she needed fresh air, but Regall and Marlene had stayed put in the common room.

"You realize that isn't due till Monday?" said Skye to Lily. Her friend gave her a look that said _are you crazy?!_

"That's in two days, Skye!" she exclaimed.

"Exactly."

Lily huffed and went back to bending over a 9-inch essay (one of the shorter essays they had to do) on important wizarding wars.

"Hey Lily! Can you help me? I missed some notes in Binns's class while I was sleeping!" shouted Regall. sprinting out of the Entrance Hall. Skye shook her head. She didn't understand why they worried over homework during their free days when they could do it the night before.

"Regall, come on and have some fun. You can do this essay later," coaxed Thorn to her best friend. Skye smiled in spite of herself. Thorn was convincing, but Regall was sure not to fall for it. Regall didn't answer. She scribbled some last words on her paper after a glance at Lily's, and took a deep breath.

"Done. Now I can hang out with you people. We can do the rest of our homework after dinner, Lily. And no Thorn," she glanced at Thorn who looked gleeful, "you did not convince me. I just happened to finish now." Thorn rolled her eyes.

"Suuuurre, Regall."

"Well, I did!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," yawned Skye, sitting up. "Well, now at least we can go do fun stuff." Lily glanced up.

"Oh, you three can go on without me. I'll join you when I'm done."

"Finish your essay and hurry up," said Regall impatiently.

"No, I have a lot. I am terrible at writing essays. You guys go ahead. I'll find you later." Skye, Thorn, and Regall exchanged glances, simultaneously shrugged, and walked out from under the tree towards the lake.

"What should we do?" asked Thorn, who was looking intensely bored. Skye and Regall exchanged a glance that said _duh. _

"Play pranks on the boys, of course," they said together. Thorn looked much less bored.

"I knew that," she said, refusing to feel ashamed, "Come on- lets plan."

"Wait!" exclaimed Skye. "Can we find Jade? She's good at plotting and planning and this kind of stuff."

"No," Regall said immediately, "There is no way Jade will do this if I am here. If you want Jade, I'll finish doing my homework."

"Fine," countered Skye, "Be right back." Skye took off across the lawn, maneuvering between the groups of students as Regall went back under the tree. After some uncertainty, Thorn followed Regall. Skye was flying up the marble staircase when she skidded around a corner and smashed into Jade, who was running at equal speed. After a lot of groaning and rolling around on the floor, Skye sat up as Jade did the same.

"I was coming to find you," they said at the exact same time. After the surprised looks had subsided, Jade asked,

"So, what are you doing with your weird Gryffindor buddies? Well, they're all weird except for…. _Siri_." Skye made a grossed out face as Jade made a dreamy face.

"What kind of nickname is that?!" said Skye incredulously. "It sounds like he's a Muggle phone or something… I dunno why…" Jade looked mortally offended. "Well, anyways, we were gonna play a prank, Thorn, Regall and I, but then Regall said that you hated her and didn't want to do anything with her, and Thorn being her best friend followed Regall away so now it is just me and you."

It took Jade some time to understand.

"Yeah... I do have a problem with Regall... but it seems like she wanted to do it... I suppose this _once _I could do a prank with her. Anyways, you should see Regall and Thorn when it comes to pranks- you don't wanna know how many times I've been pranked. And the only reason I'm doing a prank on Siri is cuz you asked me to. Just keep that in mind," Jade argued.

"Alright, whatever, just come on," beckoned Skye as she started to run through the halls again. Jade followed her.

"Here they are!" Skye heard Thorn yell. As they got nearer, Skye could make out Lily and Regall under the tree, heads bent over their work while Thorn stood beside the trunk. Regall's head flicked upwards when she heard Thorn's yell, then back down again. Skye and Jade skidded to a halt in front of Thorn.

"So, any idea for wicked awesome pranks?" Skye asked Thorn, who stared pointedly at Jade. "Oh, yeah, well, Jade said that this once, she and Regall could work together. So, if that's okay with Regall…" Skye trailed off, addressing her words to Thorn but looking at Regall, who snapped her books shut and came out from under the tree.

"Jade said yes?! Lets do it then!" Regall enthused.

"Alrighty," started Skye, "Let's begin."

*****BREAKY TIME** BREAKY TIME!* ****

Skye peered around the corner of the courtyard at the boys playing Exploding Snap under the oak tree. Jade opened her mouth to comment, perhaps to tell Skye to get a move on, but was shushed immediately by Regall. Skye ducked back around the corner as Alex Fane looked up.

"Okay, everyone," whispered Skye. "Plan A. You know what to do." She nodded to Thorn and Jade, who disappeared down the hallway. Skye handed Regall a bulging bag and kept one for herself, then they both crept down the hallway in the opposite direction of Thorn and Jade. Looking up and down the hallway to make sure no one was there, she levitated Regall onto the courtyard's low wall, where they would be hidden by decorative arches. After Regall levitated her up, Skye removed an object from the bag and quietly took aim, waiting for Thorn and Jade to appear before she and Regall acted.

A minute passed. Skye glanced down when the boys burst into laughter as their card castle exploded, singing Sirius's eyebrows, then turned impatiently to Regall.

"Where are they?" Regall shrugged, mystified.

"They should be here by now," she answered, frowning. Skye turned back to the courtyard, drumming her fingers nervously on the courtyard wall. If McGonagall came by and found them perched near the boys with suspicious looking bags, it would certainly mean detention. "There they are!" Regall exclaimed, pointing across the courtyard.

Jade was striding into the courtyard as Thorn hurried after her and grabbed her sister by the sleeve. Jade whirled around, throwing Thorn off.

"I told you, IT'S MINE!" Jade shrieked, shaking a wrapped box with a bow on it under Thorn's nose. Skye sighed in relief. Good, they had remembered to bring the prop. Thorn grabbed at the box.

"It's addressed to both of us," she snarled. "And one of those people is ME!" Jade snatched the box back.

"Obviously, our parents made a mistake," she sniffed, "Nobody in their right mind would address a present to _you._" Jade struck a dramatic pose. Skye and Regall winced at the same time. Jade was such a drama queen, and that would blow their cover if someone noticed the strange soap-opera poses she was making.

"Are you saying that Mom and Dad aren't in their right mind?" Thorn growled, reaching around Jade's back to try to get the box.

"No!" screeched Jade, trying to hold the box over Thorn's head, which didn't work because Thorn was taller. "I'm just saying that- HEY!" Thorn had snatched the box and was dancing around Jade, laughing her head off.

"Nah-nah-nah-nah-nah, you can't catch me!" she chanted in a sing-song voice. Jade tackled her sister, bringing Thorn to the ground. By now, everyone in the courtyard was watching, including the boys under the oak tree. Taking a deep breath, Skye reached for her bag. It was now or never.

"Regall!" Skye hissed. Regall jerked backwards, tearing her eyes from Alex to Skye, who was gesturing frantically to her bag. They both pulled objects out of their bags, and with their wands, silently maneuvered them to various hiding places around the boys, such as Remus's bookbag and Maxfield Brown's discarded cloak. The group of boys didn't notice a thing, even when one of Skye's objects brushed against Pettigrew's hair. Apparently, one of the legendary Waters sisters arguments was fascinating enough to keep eleven rowdy boys silent. Skye had to admit that both were pretty good actresses, though Jade was a little too dramatic. Now they were having an insult fight, the box lying forgotten on the ground. Very entertaining.

"Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but you abuse the privilege!" Thorn yelled.

"It's kinda sad watching you try to fit your entire vocabulary into one sentence!" Jade countered. Thorn narrowed her eyes.

"I would snap back, but it's Be Nice to Animals Week."

"If I'm an animal, what the heck are you then?" Jade bellowed. Thorn glanced around, pretending to notice right then that everyone was staring at them.

"C'mon," Thorn muttered, seizing Jade's arm and dragging her away, scooping up the box as she went. Skye let out a breath. Phew- it wouldn't do for anyone to find out that they had been fighting over an empty box. She exchanged evil grins with Regall. Everything was in place.

Regall directed her wand at the group below, who were now talking excitedly about what they had seen, and mouthed _one - two - three._

BANG. Rotten tomatoes, bottles of ink, pumpkin juice, bathroom business and more rained down on the hysterical boys.

"BLIMEY!" shouted James, as one of Skye's bombs exploded in midair and he was drenched in moldy yogurt. Skye and Regall watched maliciously, stifling their laughter in their cloaks as the highly entertaining scene played out before them.

Orran Chang, Maxfield Brown, and the rest of the Ravenclaw boys sprinted across the courtyard, seeking to escape the Collage Bombs, but the girls' creation just followed, tormenting them. James's gang was still under the oak tree, trying to shield themselves with their arms as two bombs went off, showering them with Droobles Best Blowing Bubble Gum wrappers, eggs, salamanders (don't ask) more rotten tomatoes, lilac ink, and some more random magical junk. Finally, the bombs stopped blowing up.

"Who the heck hates us this much?" asked Hudson Rivers, who stuck with James's group occasionally, while shooting Peter who was eating a rotten egg a disgusted glance.

"Something tells me it is Skye and her gang," shivered Sirius, while trying to clean his robes of cream soda, which had been stuck in the freezer and was a lot colder than anything anybody would drink.

Back in their hiding places, Regall and Skye were collapsing into silent laughing fits. Skye was afraid that she would die from lack of breath. Once they had recovered (somewhat) Regall peered out at the tall, light brown-haired, freckled boy who was trying to pull the gum out of his hair.

"That's Julianne's brother Alex, right?" she asked. Skye directed her gaze to where Regall was staring.

"Yeah, what about him?"

"Oh, nothing. He doesn't look like Julianne, that's all," she replied quickly. Something told Skye that Regall wasn't being entirely honest, but she didn't question further. They gathered their stuff, jumped off the courtyard wall, and hurried as fast as they could away from the courtyard. When they were finally out of earshot of the boys, Skye broke into a little victory dance.

"Success!" she cried."Come on, lets get going back to the Great Hall for the Halloween feast-"

"-where we will be met with the fury of the Waters twins," finished Regall, grinning. They walked back in comfortable silence, perhaps thinking about the priceless look on the boys' faces, or the image of James covered in yogurt and moldy cheese. However, Skye couldn't help noticing that Regall kept looking over her shoulder as they went back to their friends.

* * *

**See you in five minutes! Most likely! **

**-Hogwarts914 **


	15. Halloween and Hilarity

**Disclaimer: Yada Yada, me no own anything yada yada**

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Chapter 15- Lily

Lily stared at herself in the mirror. A blank white face with two holes for eyes stared back at her. She sighed. No matter what she did, her costume still seemed weird and childish to her. Another face popped up in the mirror.

"I guess you're lucky mirrors can't laugh," grinned Skye, eyeing Lily's ghost costume. Skye's normally brown-blonde hair was now dyed temporarily black, and Wynter had cast a special Orthodontic Charm on her teeth to make them all sharp and pointy. Her cloak's collar was turned up and Skye was wearing knee-high black boots to complete her vampire costume. Lily playfully shoved her out of the way, then glanced around at her dormitory.

Heaps of clothing littered the floor, along with face paint, jewelry, and other accessories. Her other three roommates were scurrying everywhere, shouting and accusing one another while simultaneously making the dormitory messier, if that was possible. Lily honestly couldn't see the floor anymore.

"I'm telling you, my mask was right here!" yelled a Muggle superhero/sidekick named Robin.

"Well, I have no idea where it could be, alright?!" called back a phantom whose face was completely hidden.

"Oh, here it is!" cried a skeleton.

Lily could hardly recognize her friends under their costumes. Thorn was Robin **(A/N: Don't own, Sadly)**, Regall was the phantom, and Marlene was the skeleton.

"Guys!" she shouted, trying to get their attention. When that didn't work, she threw her face paint at them. It bounced off of Regall's head. "Seriously people! Shut up and calm down or we'll never get out of here!" Lily glared at them. This uncharacteristic loud voice shut up her roommates.

"Whoa, Lily," said Thorn, looking impressed. "I didn't know that you could talk louder than a whisper." Lily threw her friend a ice cold stare.

"I mean it, you guys," she said, lowering her voice. "Now who's ready for some candy?!" The resulting roar as the first-year Gryffindor girls surged out the door and down the staircase could have made the whole school deaf. Indeed, as they swept past the common room and out the portrait hole, the older Gryffindors who weren't going trick-or-treating this year grimaced and covered their ears.

Trick or Treating in Hogwarts was much better than what all the Muggle kids did. There were pools of candy _EVERYWHERE _, and it was just up to them to find it. Just outside the common room, there was a basket of chocolate frogs. Although it said *take one*, they all, including Lily, took 4 each. As soon as they left, the basket refilled.

"I have to go now," Skye said as they continued walking down the hallway. "I promised to meet Sirius and Jade."

"Okay," replied Lily, "Have a good time." Skye nodded, even looking a little regretful, then hurried back the way they'd come to meet her cousin and Jade, who had just showed up outside the portrait of the Fat Lady and was making googly eyes at Sirius. Lily shook her head in amusement, then followed her friends, still staring around in awe.

Cackling jack-o'-lanterns sat on the suits of armours pedestals. Real bats fluttered through the hallways, and a couple of Transfigured black cats were prowling around. Ghosts swooped around, some of them, like Nearly Headless Nick, were offering candy, while others, like Peeves, were pouring melted chocolate on people's heads. To escape the poltergeist, Lily and her group ducked into a side hallway and went on towards Professor Flitwick's classroom.

Suddenly, Lily was sprawling on the ground, a pounding pain in her herself, she tried to sit up, but immediately felt dizzy and lay back down again.

"Serves you right, Mudblood brat," sneered a cold voice above her. "Should've _watched where you're going_." Lily blinked, then began to panic. She recognized that voice.

"HEY!" came Regall's voice. "Leave her alone!" Now Thorn was running over, too, with Marlene close behind.

"It wasn't my fault that it was right in my way," said Lucius Malfoy, prodding Lily's shoulder with his foot. Lily shuddered, wishing that the pain in her head would stop so she could sit up and give him a piece of her mind. But Thorn and Regall were already doing that.

"I said, LEAVE HER ALONE." Regall's voice sounded very dangerous now. She had drawn her wand, and 5th year vs. 1st year seemed hopeless, but neither Regall nor Malfoy seem to care.

"STOP IT!" hollered Thorn, while Marlene tried to tug Regall back. Regall shook her off, her eyes on Malfoy, who sneered again and swiped his wand through the air. A jet of purple light flew at Regall, who diverted it towards Malfoy's group. A particularly brutal first year named Damian Flint dove aside to avoid it. Now Regall pointed her wand at Malfoy and muttered something that Malfoy deflected, sending it into Regall's gut. With a groan, she doubled over, then straightened up enough to shield herself from Malfoy's next curse.

Lily couldn't stand this. Regall was an excellent dueller and she knew it, but Malfoy was years and years better than them. Whipping around, she sprinted to the nearest classroom, which had a light on, and threw open the door. Professor McGonagall looked up from her desk with a rare smile on her face.

"Miss Evans? Would you like some Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans?" Lily shook her head, trying to choke out the words.

"Not now Professor, this is important! Regall and Malfoy are duelling and I need your help!" Professor McGonagall stood up from her chair and was out of the room before Lily could blink. Following her, she got back to the hallway where McGonagall had cast a Shield Charm between Regall and Malfoy to stop them. It appeared that both Malfoy and Regall had some serious injuries, though Regall was smiling in a somewhat satisfied way.

"Miss Ashe! Are you alright?!" the Professor gasped.

"Oh I'm fine, just have a bad cut on my knee that's all," Regall replied, ignoring the gash on her forehead. Malfoy was groaning in pain about a small cut above his eye.

"I didn't think you'd stand a chance!" worried McGonagall, "I won't take any points, as it is Halloween, but I hope you both have learned a hard lesson. After you are done trick-or-treating Ashe, go straight to the hospital wing. Mister Malfoy, you too. Or go now, if you like. Am I clear? I don't want to hear about any more fights Mister Malfoy. If I am correct, your record isn't very clean. " The Professor was back to her stern self.

"Yes Professor," chorused Regall and Malfoy.

"Good. Run along then," she shooed them away. Malfoy left, throwing the group of girls a look of deep disdain over his shoulder. Damian Flint did the same and tried to trip Lily.

"Mudblood," Damian hissed in her ear as he stalked past, quiet enough so McGonagall, who was going back to her office after handing both groups packets of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans, couldn't hear him. Lily stared after the group, her eyes not on Damian or Malfoy, but fixed on one of the other retreating backs of Malfoy's gang. Unwillingly, she felt her eyes fill with tears.

How could he? How dare he? How could he have just stood there and watched?

"Lily?" It was Thorn. "Come on, we're going to Flitwick's office now." Lily angrily wiped the tears away and followed Thorn across the hall, not trusting herself to be able to look back at Sev again.

****DUNDUNDUDUN!**BREAKY LIIIINNNE!****

Lily was still wiping her eyes on her sleeve when she spotted another group farther down the hallway. They were picking up chocolate cauldrons with assorted fillings and Peter who had gotten a firewhisky was bouncing up and down crying "HOT! HOT! SPICYYYYY!" Silently cursing, she quickly turned her back and ducked down behind Thorn. Great. The last thing she needed now was Potter. Thankfully, he seemed absorbed in arguing with Skye.

"Nuh-uh! I have at least fifty more pieces of candy than you!" Potter insisted.

"Well, if you're counting in negatives, I guess you'd be right!" retorted Skye. Jade looked like she was about to take Skye's side when Black stepped in and peered into Potter's pillowcase of candy.

"No way, Skye, he totally has more pieces than you," Sirius shook his head, hair falling over his eyes. Jade closed her mouth, clearly torn, then sidled up to Black.

"Siri's right, Skye," Jade giggled. "Of course, he's always right." Black made an eww face and pushed Potter between them while Skye threw her hands up in the air in exasperation and spun around, looking for backup. Spotting Lily's group of trick-or-treaters, she dashed over to them and shoved her candy pillowcase under Marlene's nose.

"That's a lot of candy, isn't it?" she demanded. "More than Potter has, right?"

"Umm, I g-guess so," stammered poor Marlene. Skye crowed and threw Black a triumphant look. Black whispered something to Potter, who grinned and whispered to Pettigrew, who grinned and whispered to Remus, who sighed. Jade was trying to desperately to listen in, too, but Potter and Black ignored her and swaggered down the hall towards Lily, who silently moaned and stepped out from behind Thorn. No point trying to hid now. Honestly, could today get any worse?

"You say that you have more candy than me, Skye," Potter smirked. "But I'm pretty sure that I have more. Whadda you say to a Halloween candy competition?" Skye narrowed her eyes, then thoughtfully nodded.

"It's on," she said with an evil smile. Lily thought that she had seen the competitive side of Skye, but obviously it was about to really shine through tonight.

"And we'll help you, Skye," broke in Thorn, shaking her candy bag for emphasis.

"And we'll help _you_, Jamesey," said Black. Potter nodded, not even noticing Black's nickname for him at the moment.

"Alright. It's eight-thirty right now, so how about we meet back in the Gryffindor common room around, oh, say ten o'clock. That's an hour and a half, everyone. The one rule is that you can't just stand by the same bowl and keep dumping the refillings into your bag. Once you've used a bowl, you've got to move on. Just keep the candy you already have in your bags. Ready…set…GO!" Everyone split up, Alex and Regall going for the nearest bowls while everyone else sprinted away. Lily flew through the hallways of Hogwarts, glad for the distraction. _How could Sev have done this to me?_ she thought as she shook some fat golden toffees into her pillowcase. _Well, one thing's for sure - he's gonna have a whole lot of explaining to do tomorrow in Potions._

* * *

**See ya'!**

**-Hogwarts914**


	16. Alex and Annoyances

**Disclaimer- Like I said before, I don't own anything**

* * *

Chapter 16- Regall

Regall was in a dilemma. She didn't want to admit it, but the happiest part of last night was rushing around with Alex trying to compete for candy. She and Thorn had never felt anything for boys, and Regall was a little worried.

_Well I don't _feel _anything. It was just fun beating him _she convinced herself.

"Just sit still would you?" snapped Madam Pomfrey who was trying to bind her injured knee (it turned out that she had torn a muscle when her already cut knee was running around the school getting candy). Regall laughed, and wiggled her leg just to annoy Madam Pomfrey.

"Your entire family's been impossible, you know that? Your mother was just like you- she loved to disobey people just for the fun of it. And your father was all about his pranks, and getting in trouble, and you don't even want to know the number of times I had him in here with injuries," recalled Madam Pomfrey, " and now if you will please stay put, or else you'll never get out of here."

" Ugh, fine."

Madam Pomfrey finished wrapping up Regall's leg, and as soon as she was done, Regall sprang up, landed on her bad foot and lost balance. Luckily, she landed on the soft cotton mattress of the hospital beds. Madam Pomfrey raised an eyebrow.

"And how about a little common sense please?"

"Sorry 'bout that. Now, see ya later!" Regall called out as she sprinted in an awkward way out the door.

"And make sure to go easy on that leg! No Quidditch lessons for 3 weeks!" yelled the nurse.

"Yeah whatever! I'd like to see this stupid leg stop me!" Regall hollered back. Behind her, Madam Pomfrey sighed, a faintly amused expression on her face.

Regall dashed back to her friends, wincing in pain as she did, but not stopping. As she was madly climbing stairs, she rammed right into Skye.

"Watch it! Are you blind?!" snapped Skye before she saw Regall, "Oh it's you! How's your leg doing? I heard Thorn say that Madam Pomfrey loves you." Regall laughed.

"I guess she does in a twisted way. I always disobey her- on purpose of course, and she is tired of me, and I'm tired of her, so we were both happy when I left," Regall replied cheerfully. Skye grinned now, and they both made their way back up to the common room.

"Nobody has touched my candy, have they?" Regall asked suddenly, looking genuinely worried. She didn't want anybody to know, but she intended to share some with Alex, not for any reason in particular, but for fun, since he had given her most of the answers (not intending to) of where the hidden candy baskets were. They were going to trade at the feast, but were making themselves too fat with the contents of the feast (mmmmmm... cookieeeeees...)

"Of course not. Thorn tried to, and ended up getting her finger stuck to the basket for a while as a result of the jinx you put on it," reassured Skye. Regall breathed a sigh of pure relief.

"I'm smart, ain't I?" Regall grinned.

"No you're not. Ain't isn't a word, all smart people know that," Skye retorted. "Such as me." Regall rolled her eyes as Skye spoke the password to the Fat Lady who was getting a bit drunk and was dancing and calling herself a baby.

"GOOGOO GAGA!" the Fat Lady shrieked, doing the Hokey-Pokey.

"What's up with her?" Regall asked. Skye shrugged.

"Nobody knows for sure, but Wynn says that she got paired with another painting and fell in love, and she's been upset that he had to go away," Skye explained, "Life is better when you don't get involved in love if you ask me." Regall squirmed uncomfortably.

"You better not tell Jade that," she joked.

As they walked in, they were met with fog and random confetti and flashing lights.

"Um..." Regall started, but she was cut off by Thorn.

"WELCOME BACK REGALL! WELCOME BACK! WE MISSED YOU TERRIBLY! THE PLACE WAS SO MUCH MORE PEACEFUL!" Thorn bellowed.

"Geez, I was only gone for a night," Regall complained.

"I know. I was bored," Thorn replied, "That is, after we were discussing your pairing with Alex, I was bored." Regall face-palmed.

"For the _last freaking time _I don't have a crush on Alex!" Regall suddenly went into defense mode and felt like she didn't believe what she was saying.

_I think I'm just tired. My mind is playing tricks on me _she pressed on fiercely.

"Surreeeeeee..." Thorn trailed off. Regall shot her a killer glare and tried to fight through the crowd toward her dormitory, but Thorn's arm shot out and wrapped around Regall's shoulder. "Not yet, invalid!" cried Thorn cheerily. "First, you must go around spreading hope with the story of your tragic injury! Here at Gryffindor Boot Camp, we- hey!" Regall had slithered out from under Thorn's arm and was making a mad getaway towards the girl's dorm staircase. Thorn, hampered by all of the heavily partying people, couldn't reach Regall in time. Pleased with her escape, Regall snuck up the staircase and into her pleasantly quiet dorm, where she proceeded to barricade the door temporarily against nosy friends and flung herself onto her bed, thoughts turning to Alex once more, without even realizing it.

Later that week, things were mostly back to normal, either that or Regall had gotten used to all the teasing. Regall was more guarded and cool around Thorn, and surprisingly felt relief when Alex walked by. That didn't mean that she followed Alex around or anything. Regall thought that that was more like Jade.

She did notice that the only person who didn't make goggly eyes when Alex walked by was Grace. Julianne was a nuisance, since Alex was her brother, but Thorn and Skye didn't stop teasing her 'behind her back' , and Jade was shouting "Ship! Ship!" every time she walked by. Regall tried to ignore all this, and she went on, doing her business, just as she would be if these annoyances didn't exist.

***BREAKY*BREAKY*BREAKY LINE!*****

"Hey Regall! How's your date with Alex going?" Thorn asked scathingly. Regall, who was doing a 2 foot essay for Professor Callisto on patterns of constellations, ignored Thorn and continued on her essay.

"In my opinion, this essay is pointless," sighed Regall, "Do I care about constellations and how they affect my life? _No_."

"Come on Regall, stop changing the topic," Thorn urged.

_Don't kill her. Don't murder her. She doesn't deserve to die so young _thought Regall, trying to convince herself not to throw her five hundred plus page hard-cover textbook in Thorn's ugly face. Instead, she put her quill down, took her phial of red unwashable ink, and cracked it right over Thorn's head, to make it seem like she was bleeding profusely (it was really quite funny) and strode right out of the common room, leaving Thorn wet and inky, blinking in horror.

As soon as she got out of the common room, Regall broke down. Her body was wracking with sobs, and she didn't care who saw her. Suddenly, a horrible chill flew down her spine. Whipping back, she found herself face to face with Nearly Headless Nick.

"Regall, isn't it?" he asked politely. Regall nodded, tears still rolling down her face. "What's the matter? I heard sobbing, so I came to check on you." Regall took a deep breath and then exploded.

"My friends tease me. About- about me and a boy. And I hate it! I want to kill them! Literally! YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MANY TIMES I HAD TO STOP MYSELF FROM GOING AFTER THEM WITH A SERRATED KNIFE!" she shrieked, all her emotions tumbling out like a river. She explained (in a yelling manner) everything, from the Halloween scavenger hunt to this very moment, not excluding Thorn's new bloody appearance. At the end of it all, Nick said nothing. After a while, he spoke.

"Wow. You must really hate Alex." Regall shut her eyes, and took in what the ghost was saying. After what she had just said, to any passerby, it would seem as if she despised Alex.

_But I don't. I don't hate him, but I'm afraid that my friends may be right_.

"I don't hate him. I think he's fine. In fact, he's more than fine. I-I'm afraid that Thorn's correct about me having a crush on him..." she admitted. It felt like a 100 pound weight had been lifted off her back. That thought had been following her and haunting her forever. It felt so good to release that to somebody she could trust (which had narrowed down to Alex, Nick, Lily and Grace).

"If _you _think she maybe right, than she definitely is. But why do you view it as a bad thing? I'm sure Alex is a wonderful boy and there's nothing wrong in admiring him," soothed Nick.

"I know," mumbled Regall, "but my friends don't see it that way. According to Skye," Regall put on a perfect imitation of Skye, "'Life is better when you don't get involved in love if you ask me.' I can't admit it to them, but I can't keep it to myself!"

"I'm sure you'll figure out something," comforted Nick. Regall shook her head and darted off, looking for somebody alive who she could find comfort in.

Regall didn't know where she was going. All she saw were hallways and statues, and staircases. She didn't keep track of her twists and turns, only wanting to get away from the rest of her house. She kept shoving people aside, one of which she recognized as James (and was glad she shoved him), to get to wherever she was going. Finally she stopped, on what she thuoght was the 7th floor, near a room she had never seen before. The door was at least 10 feet tall (twice Regall's height) and had silver engravings on it. It felt very old, and... magical. There was almost a vibration radiating from it that made the door feel very different.

_I hope this is a place that gets me away from all connections that I once had _thought Regall bitterly, remembering how all who were once close to her now seemed so distant... except for Calix. He would always be in her heart. Sighing, she gave the door a strong push. Regall expected that opening the door would be an agonizing process, since it seemed so strong and heavy, but it opened without any trouble and with no noise whatsoever.

The room was dark, but the candles inside lit immediatly after Regall crept in, illuminating the room with a dull, flickering light. Inside, was a pass for being late to class (which was when Regall made a mental note to make copies of that pass) and a small bed with velvet comforters spread neatly, as long as a bedside table with Alex's picture on it, winking at Regall. Her heart stopped, and butterflies began fluttering in her stomach. WIthout another thought, she slipped the picture into her bookbag. She knew things would be better if she knew that picture was in there. Suddenly, in the comfort of the room, she wondered if Alex felt the same anger at being openly paired with her.

A movement on the wall startled her. In the empty picture-frame that hung on the cream-colored walls, a message was written in thin, messy slanted handwriting.

_You bet I have. _

There was a quill on the bedside table. Regall's green eyes brightened as she snatched it up and walked up to the wall. _Do I just write on the wall? I guess it's worth a try _she thought.

_Alex? _Regall wrote tensley. The reply came almost immediately.

_Yes, Regall? _

_Yes, do you know where I am? I don't. _

_Neither do I, sorry. I found this empty piece of parchment with this odd quill on by dorm bed, and on it was asking if I felt angry every time I was paired with you. I decided to reply, but I had no idea that you were on the other end._

_Oh, that's okay. I am just trying to get away from my friends... They keep pairing me with you... and the worst part is that... that... I'll just say it. I think they're right. _

_What?! _

_Hate me all you want _Regall wrote angrily _but that won't change my feelings for you. _

_I don't hate you. In fact, I like you very much._

Regall was thankful nobody was around to see her blush like she did.

* * *

**That should be all for now! See you soon! R&R! **

**The more reviews, the faster the updates will be!**

**-Hogwarts914**


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